Comments on: Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans

A CBS News Investigation Uncovers A Suicide Rate For Veterans Twice That Of Other Americans

[makethewaite]

Thank you CBS news for focusing on this devastating topic. My only regret is that the American public, and the world for that matter, can quote more details about the Britney and Kevin fiasco than they can about this war, including these horrible facts presented in your story. I say, shame on the V.A. and shame on the Bush Administration. These brave men and women gave an oath to protect and defend this country and the least our country (government) can do in return is protect and defend them when they return home from war. My father, now deceased, proudly served in the US Army for 21 years and regretted he ever retired. He served in Viet Nam for one year (1967)but returned home a VERY changed man. For him, the war never ended. He fought it daily: he was depressed, had anger issues, was distrustful and suspicious and was a loner. He fought it at night: nightmares of the war plagued him almost every night; he dreaded going to sleep. God bless the soldier.

[mhwallace01]

When I saw Morley Safer''s piece on the Millenials on last week''s 60 MINUTES, I immediately began wondering how the MIllenials fare at war. My concern is that the spate of suicides and the strong uptick in suicide rate may be among millenials who need extra help in processing the war for themselves. Many have not faced such exquisite hardships and barbarism at any time in their young lives -- fortunately, the US is a pretty safe place to grow up (especially when compared with Iraq).

I think a news agency somewhere should look at the convergence of these 2 issues to see if there are any correlations -- and to help all of understand how we can help. The Armed Forces may need to address the issues quite differently with this generation -- as the rest of us are learinng every day at work and at home.

[micma-2009]

Don''''t worry vets. Help is on the way. Bu$h is going to send you an nice "support the troops" bumper sticker courtesy of the RNC.

[joecooool-2009]

The author needs to clarify that the 120 per week are Iraq war veterans. This is how I read the article.

[forthepeopl1]

TO ALL AMERICA YES, CONGRESS HAS AGAIN SLAP AMERICANS RIGHT IN THE FACE WITH THIS, PLEASE DONT BELEIVE ME THAN GO AND READ THE LAW BUSH SIGN INTO LAW.

ITS CALL THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT 2006, AND HIDDEN IN FINE PRINT CONGRESS HAS GIVEN THEMSELFS AND ANYONE WORKING IN THE GOVERNEMNT IMMUNEITY ON ANY THING THAT HAS HAPPEN IN THE WAKE OF THE WAR,OR ANYTHING ELSE THEY CAN FIND.

THIS IS THE BEST PART, THEY BACK DATED IT TO ( 1997) why?????

why would they need to back date this all the way before 2001????

because they have been ease dropping on america way back then...think about it america, and you better think about this, cheney/bush/rumsfeld/rove/rice started this war on all lies on top of lies, and remember 18 out of 19 involved in 2001 was saudi araibans you know the king and bush hold hands walking in the woods??? and this is why bush said he doesn''t care about finding bin laddan because bin is part of the royal family that bush loves..

so if you look at the hole law, hillary help get it into law, why why why sounds funning because her husband bill was president at that time in 1997..so what are they all hideing in washington???????????????

david a belanger,veteran,us army, 978-618-3105,[e-mail]

[citizenusa-2009]

Baby Bush wanted to play war with real soldiers. Daddy and Uncle D.i.c.k. said "If enough fools in this country are dumb enough to elect you as President, you can do whatever you want, but you need to watch the finances because the U.S. doesn''t have enough money to help you play for too long."

Little Bush looked into the big fat piggy bank that Clinton left him, and with a big grin on his face, smashed it with a hammer. Look, money to make war!!! Yippeee! Seven years later, the baby has grown into a large problem and is now stealing from every American to let him play his war games.

[ffra78]

this articul is very full of datas that make me coming back in the mouvie catcher with robert deniro.
It s a similar problem. Its very strange and i wonder when i read about an high percentage of suicide of soldiers when they came back home instead of the number suicide in that countries during da war.
how could it be possible?
what about the phsichic assistance during the war done by dedicated operator?
what about all the fear that this guys bring with them when they keep a machinegun? they risk to accumulate everything in their mind, and coming back home near their dear, find only sadness, depression ...its orrible

[micma-2009]

Don''t worry vets. Help is on the way. Bu$h is going to send you an nice "support the troops" bumper sticker.

[read4truth]

For those of you spinning the data to suit your pro-Bush, anti-liberal media agenda, the authors did take into account the male/female suicide rate differences...see the Methodology section of the report. Idiots. We all know "spin doctors" and statisticians can make numbers say what they want (this goes for all sides,including neo-cons and liberals)and every politician has an agenda (get re-elected) so how do we "know " the truth? How can we believe anything that is reported in the news now? This is not an easy question to address. It is no wonder that many of todays young people don''t read or listen to the news/politicians and instead spend billions on distractions like video games to pass away their time on earth (like the Roman gladiatorial games). The cynacism in this country must be at an all time high. James Madison''s formula for a government/country to maximize its'' factions to minimize the risk of absolutism has effectively divided this nation in half with neither side believing anything the other is saying and divided we fall. Only when our government is 100% transparent, only when full disclosure of all material the politicians have access to is made public, only then will "trust" reemerge in our culture... but we all know that will never happen.

[marcodele]

It''s because after they return home, they find out George W. Bush is done using them.

[marjiemiller]

I found this poem on the net a few days ago:

In time of trouble, and in war . . .
God and soldier all men adore.
But when war is over and all things righted . . .
God is forgotten, and the soldier slighted.

Taken from a soldier''s pocket after the Battle of Hastings, 1066

[citizenusa-2009]

Thank you CBS for again having to courage to seek out and publish this information. At least we can count on your news organization to stand against this devious administration. Keep up the good work. You may have embarassed our fearless leader and saved some lives in the process.

[marjiemiller]

watch movie at link below...explains why a vet would kill himself...must see...it''s about Veterans with "honorable discharges" mysteriously losing their benefits and not being able to get jobs anywhere, no matter how well they score on tests, due to a secret code in their "honorable discharge" files...shocking...it''s about one strong soldier''s 33 year fight with the US government, AFTER he came home from the war, with medals...

http://www.apfn.org/APFN/DD214.htm

[jetranger7]

This goes to support my theory all along, that you Can NOT just take anybody put them thru training in the Military and expect them to come out in the civilian population, and be OK. You'' can''t just train anybody to accept Killing, rather its enemies or not, and shoot and kill others and blow them up, with out some of them ending up with some psychogical disorder, war and shooting and bombing is not just for any Joe off the street,you have to have a nitch for it, a stomach for it, to be able to walk past bodies blown to smitherines, heads blowed off, faces blowed off, brains laying out in the street, bodies with no legs and arms, beheadings, eyes gouged out, some have the stomach for it and others don''t, they need to be a little more picky about who they send into combat to kill, its like some people are afraid of heights or flying and some aren''t, some can handle it others can''t ! Meanwhile, the Govt. should help those who went and fought !

[beehive21-2009]

Everyone is killing themselves,lately, the president and OIL companies are driving people Mad.

[fibonacci_]

Interesting thoughts, likeablunch.
:)

[gordon.couger]

If they are only killing themsleves at twice the natation avearge I would say the mitary was doing a pretty good job.

When I did the exit interview for my brother from a military contractor. He had shot himself on Christmas Eve in 1981. They were concerned because their computer programmers were killing themselves at 4 times the national average.

gc

[nk1981]

well, I just want to inform you that I tried to foward this information to US military colleagues and they blocked the fwd due to its content??? any one want to explain why they would not want active soldiers to read about this....

[smilebig-2009]

Thank you for pulling back the curtain of this concealed inevitable outcome of war, which remains well after the cease-fire command.

There should be no confusion over why Vets return home with glazed eyes. Mandatory psychological decompression should be performed for all released Vets, certainly from active combat duty.

The mental-health issue would not be as massive if the military was dispatched by Congress and placed by the Commander-in-Chief where most needed. Both borders are porous, allowing approximately 5,000 illegals to enter and claim citizenship with birthrights from anchor babies.

Protect this nation from the silent invasion rather than fighting an enemy in civilian clothes from another culture on the other side of the globe. Congress must declare the war before going to battle, which is the only chance of ''winning'' it.

More truth-filled coverage of war''s fallout is encouraged and will be appreciated. Blessings on the troops for their mental and physical sacrifices to protect our liberties, especially on those who are fortunate enough to return in one piece.

[jimeo722]

This is another example of how political bias affects one''s perception of the truth. We are more easily fooled by falsohoods that fit our prejudices. Thus, liberal, anti-military CBS News gets fooled with fuzzy math, Liberal, anti-military magazine The New Republic gets fooled by the patently ridiculous stories of its "Baghdad Diarist," right-wing global warming sceptic Rush Limbaugh gets fooled by phony research paper proving that it''s caused by algae, and so on, and so on. I call it Dan Rather Syndrome.
Keep it up! We enjoy the laughs!