DURHAM DISPATCH : U.S. not at war
Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008
Editor’s note: This column first ran in the White River Valley News on Dec. 20, 2007.
The first message she sent me from Iraq was, “ This is a damn mess. ” She was a major in a reserve mobile medical unit. She wrote that they couldn’t get parts for their humvees or flak jackets and other equipment. The messages were rather light until after “ Mission accomplished” announced the end of the war. Then, as the war dragged on, the messages got heavier and ended with, “ Dirt washes off easier than blood. ” We still communicated by email. Hers is a sad story that happens so often when vets return from a war. She was getting a divorce and the Army had filed charges against her for insubordination and conduct unbecoming of an officer. She had sent five of her men back to the states because she felt they were suicidal. One of them committed suicide shortly after he returned. Later another had eaten a bullet in front of his wife and children. She turned to the only person who would understand her dilemma. She called me. She was breaking and suicidal. We talked for over an hour. I have considerable experience in talking with suicidal persons. I had been a social worker at a state mental hospital. I worked the night shift which someone had dubbed the “ suicide and freak out” shift. But she was special as she had been one of my students at the University of Arkansas. She was not alone in her thoughts and plans to commit suicide. CBS News did a five month study on suicides of the Bushian Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some who read the report were appalled at the numbers. I was not only appalled, I was outraged ! Some call it a “ hidden epidemic” because there is actually no way to determine the number of suicides and the CBS report is flawed. One Marine reported that it was flawed because CBS did not take into account demographics such as that the military is over 80 percent male, about 60 percent white and that the suicide rate in the 18 to 30 age range the difference in suicide rates for vets and nonvets is only 0. 3 percent. I don’t know where he got his figures, but frankly, I don’t see that demographics and percentages of age or race has anything to do with the suicide rate. One suicide is too many. A parent of a Troopie who took his life said, “ They survived the hell that was Iraq and they come home only to lose their life. ” But flawed or not the CBS report is less flawed than the military’s, which reported that between 1995 and 2007 there were 2, 200. “ But these numbers only included ‘ active duty’ soldiers. ” CBS asked all 50 states for their suicide data for those 12 years. Forty five states responded, and the subsequent report was “ stunning. ” In 2005 alone there were at least 6, 256 suicides among those who had served in the military. That comes to ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SUICIDES OF OUR TROOPIES PER WEEK ! That’s more than those killed and wounded in action in one month !
CBS asked Dr. Steve Rathbun, acting head of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Georgia, to run a detailed analysis with the raw numbers that they obtained from the states for 2004 and 2005. He found that in 2005, the last year statistics seem to be available, veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide than non-vets. One age group stood out big time. The highest rate of suicide was in the age group 20 through 24 who served in the so-called “ War On Terror, ” which I call the Bushian Wars.
The VA is doing an ongoing national research study and I don’t have any figures at this time. I’ll stay on this topic as closely as I’ve followed the Marines in the Haditha fire-fight. I’ve written many times about the treatment at the VA here and, once again, I must write that they are excellent in mental health programs.
And my major who had problems ? She received an Honorable Discharge from the Army and, as I advised her, sought help at the VA where she is receiving counseling and other benefits. She is divorced, got another job and is doing well.
As I was writing this, the daily papers of our area carried the same headlines: The University of Arkansaw has hired a new football coach. There is no mention of the Bushian Wars. There are some pieces on car bombs, suicide bombers and such in Iraq buried inside. I wrote a friend about this and he responded with an excellent summation. “ The right-wing noise machine has been quite effective in dictating the war’s ‘ narrative, ’ including the ‘ good news ’ of the surge. Little else gets through in the mainstream media. ” I agree and I want to point out a disturbing conclusion I’ve come to. America is not at war, only our military is at war. The American people are more interested in celebrities than they are in our Troopies who are giving their all for us all.
Question authority. It’s the American way.
------Budd Saunders has an M. A. and is all but dissertation away from a PhD from the University of Arkansas. He has a military background, has worked in mental health and lectured Western Civilization at the university.
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