suicides and our troops

[donsu]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000442221

Any reporters researching the increasingly critical story of suicides among American troops who have served in Iraq are likely to suffer from a near-crippling bout of cognitive dissonance, a kind of temporal disconnect between the tragedy unfolding for some of our soldiers and the business-as-usual tempo of a nation largely unaware.

You may also find yourself inhabiting a very sad place where a young soldier strolls away from a telephone booth in Baghdad, pulls out a gun and fires a bullet into his own head; a world where, for one Iraq vet, a motel room in Tennessee becomes a place not for celebrating his safe homecoming but the perfect secret venue for swallowing drain-clearing chemicals.

For me, a Vietnam veteran and former post traumatic stress disorder counselor, research at the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation on soldier suicides is triggering something akin to déjà vu. We see tip-of-the-iceberg indicators that portend a post-Iraq psychiatric disaster for some returning soldiers, one that the country is ill-prepared to deal with and one that the Pentagon appears to be spinning like a top.

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Also hard to know are the reasons that soldiers are killing themselves. There is some evidence that the anti-malarial drug Lariam may be playing a role, but history tells us that the relentless stress and sheer bloodiness of this deployment will also be a factor. Last July, following a "spike" in suicides, Iraq forces commander General Ricardo Sanchez requested help from the Army surgeon general, and a 12-member "mental health advisory team" was quickly dispatched. That team's much-anticipated report was reportedly finished months ago but its release keeps being postponed. The press should investigate why.
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the article also says that over 1000 troops have been sent out of action because of mental problems.

and here in the US the broke states are cutting funding for psych patients, etc.

It's very hard to hold down a job with post-tramatic shock syndrome so we can look forward to seeing our curbs and streets full of sick vets. shame on us.