RP should speak out on this asap

[Sarge]

I just heard on CNN that the military suicide rate is skyrocketing.

I did a search and found this,

http://www.nbc12.com/news/healthcast/15066831.html

Clearly this long continued war is taking a toll of the military. Short breaks and little family involvement.

While I was typing this Wolf just said the military might not be coming home soon.
He is getting ready to report. It sounds like they are going to extend the tours.

For all those who want more war this will show what it is doing to our great soldiers.

They can't take much more from the sounds of what is being reported.

Dr. Paul should speak out on this as the others will not say word one.

[Sarge]

Might want to get this out to VFW and American Legion to get them behind Dr. Paul.

Who better should know the long term effects of war.

[Sarge]

And more,

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-10-13-army-suicides-usat_x.htm

[Mystile]

The ones who bear the brunt of our foreign policy are the ones who get the least out of it.

[Sarge]

Right you are. Thank you for helping bump this up.

I would like to see more look at this tread and feel it is very timely to go after those who want War War War.

They can't take much more without a break. I hope Dr. Paul jumps on this.

[kimo]

Actually he should talk about this. And believe me it will be not much better numbers in the future, only worst.
As born Lithuanian (emigrated back in 90`s to Denmark with family), I had a lot older friends who served in afganistan. It took them ages to recover, even if they could...
I heard Bush speach today in Nevada. 20.000 coming back soon from Iraq (or will be replaced,admit, didn`t caught a hole speach actually). Take good care of them, cause they need you..

[Sarge]

Thank you and you are right. This is the tip of the iceberg if they just keep them over there.

Bush now saying troop withdrawal will slow down. I would expect the suicide rate to rise, if they keep this up. I don't care how sound they are when they ship out if they are kept over there and they have families hardly existing. That wears on them along with the fighting.

You are right many will have mental and physical scars the rest of their lives if they can survive being kept over there forever.

[Sarge]

shameless bump to make sure people see what is happening.

[Sey.Naci]

He has mentioned several times in interviews, including yesterday's with Politico.com.

[Sarge]

Great,

Jack Cafferty jumping blasting this on CNN just now.

[liberteebell]

It sounds like they are going to extend the tours.


The troops have been on extended tours, back to back and multiple tours for a long time. They're also taking navy people, giving them a few weeks of training and putting them on the ground as infantry. Of course, our wonderful un-biased media doesn't report on it.

How many more lives is it going to take?? :mad:

[ShowMeLiberty]

I agree that this is extremely important. I had a bit of my heart broken this week on another online community I'm part of - here is why...

One of the members of this other community is an active duty soldier, currently serving in Kuwait after 2 tours in Iraq. Earlier this week he posted about how he is feeling "tired, burnt out, depressed, isolated, and alone".

He also writes that there is no one he can talk to about things that may be bothering him - some of the things he did and saw during his first deployment.

He goes on to describe having to point his weapon at children who may have been working for insurgents. The threat is constant and the soldiers have to assume everything and everyone is a potential enemy. It didn't bother him until recently, now that his threat level is somewhat reduced. Now he wonders how he could have looked at children that way. Even though he knows he had no choice but to do exactly what he did.

He is also bothered by the devastating destruction he's seen in Iraq. He describes massive garbage dumps littered with god knows what and animals, men, and children scrounging there for whatever they could find to help them survive.

He talks about so much more, but I don't want to repeat much more of it here because I feel a little like I'm betraying a trust. This soldier will not seek mental health help from the doctors available to him because there is a stigma attached to it. He has a certain rank, so he feels that he cannot let himself feel weak (as in needing help is weak) and he can't have the soldiers below his rank see him as weak. Right now, he is "talking" things out with his online friends and we are all being supportive and encouraging him to at least continue writing to us online and not keep everything bottled up inside.

He is a true patriot who is serving this country because he believes in the Constitution and all it represents. I know this for certain based on other things he has written over the past couple of years.

That's why it broke a piece of my heart when he wrote, "On the blood soaked streets of Baghdad I lost part of my humanity...a part that no matter what I do I will never get back." And yet he accepts this fact and wants only to continue being an American soldier.

The sheeple need to know what an enormous sacrifice our soldiers are making. They must be made to answer if whatever goal the U.S. still has in Iraq is really worth the terrible price.

[InLoveWithRon]

I can't believe our boys are mutilating themselves and there's almost no mainstream news coverage.

[Phantom]

And let's not forget, the Iraq Conflict Has Killed A Million Iraqis (http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/31/6768/)

[Sarge]

Thank you for sharing this.

My heart goes out to him and the other troops.

All but Dr. Paul, are just not getting it and someone has to hit Americans over the head what the elite are doing to our troops.

They are wearing out faster due to the long deployments, short time home, and being sent back. I just can't even imagine how they or their families are surviving.

It will get to a revolution, if they see no end in sight.

Not that they are weak, but stress takes a toll. The longer the stress, the more major the breakdown. Stress destroys the body and families.

[Phantom]

And let us not forget, the AMERICAN SOLDIERS RETURNING SICK FROM IRAQ WITH DEPLETED URANIUM POISONING WHO ARE POISONING THEIR WIVES, WHOSE BABIES ARE BEING BORN WITH DEFORMITIES! (http://cuttingedge.org/News/n1965.cfm)

[coffeewithchess]

It wouldn't matter if RP addressed this, the media won't cover it and I'm sure Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton may address this tonight in the debate...because they prep for debates.

[kimo]

It´s not because boys are weak. There is not such a word down there.
Exatlly is daily STRESS.
.15 years later, they still wake up shouting in dreams.
Back in f*cking ussr, they "told us", that afganistan was a major national security treat. Now then we know truth, we think "was it worth"?..

[GTMomma]

I'm getting more and more depressed about this. My husband is an active-duty soldier of 14 years and I'm scared to death that he'll be sent to Iraq. We've somehow been lucky so far (not deliberately), but he has one more year as a recruiter then it's almost certain he'll be deployed overseas.

What's bad is I've heard hard-core liberals talk about the necessity of us staying in Iraq. When did that shift of thinking happen?

[Phantom]

Here is some good news. Well, sort of. Military recruiters may be zoned out of Berkeley (http://www.dailycal.org/article/100049/initiative_targets_military_recruitment)

If passed by a majority of Berkeley voters, a proposed initiative would require military recruiting offices and private military companies in Berkeley to first acquire a special use permit.

To obtain this permit, a business must hold public hearings and a public comment period.

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches.

[GTMomma]

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches.

This initiative seems like a waste of time to me. It's not like the recruiters are standing on the sidewalk and nabbing teenagers as they walk by. They have the names, phone numbers and addresses of every junior and senior high schooler in their area. They go to the schools and talk to them there.

[Sarge]

I agree they are not weak.

Not sure of actual figures, but I think they have spent more time, with less leave, than any other war.

This is not putting any other war veterans down for what they have done. They are all my hero's.

My father was captured and in a war camp in Manila. I never met him.

I have one picture of him to show our sons. So believe me, I know what the ones at home are going through. How McCain, who was a POW, could want 100 more years of war is beyond me.

[zach]

I think reporters should go over there themselves (better yet, the other politicians) and have an interview with a soldier over there and put it on live tv.

Have they done that yet?
Looking at some videos on youtube, they don't seem happy at all for being over there.

[DDMX]

121 suicides, 2100 attempted suicides.

unbelievable

[Airborn]

He mentions it in this interview with yahoo, http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=6206549&ch=5987738&src=news

It's the 13 minute long interview, not the one about sports

[Cinderella]

bump it for my little brother in iraq!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bump for all the brothers, sons, grandchildren, fathers, and uncles in iraq

[Steveco]

You should really play down the war issue in Colorado and with republicans in general. The antiwar hippy/*** types are already supporting Ron Paul. That is the major issue that is costing him a lot of republican support and only republicans can vote in Colorado, talk about economics, life, 2nd amendment, states rights, but down play the war thing in Colorado, if someones main issue is the anti-war thing they are already supporting Dr. Paul.
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