News Analysis: May 28, 2009
Stress and suicide are ripping through our military ranks, as they have for years, which VFA has assiduously documented. The military is now struggling to tackle the problems more directly. Fort Campbell went idle to confront the horror of soldier suicides. “Tell Somebody” if you’re thinking about suicide.
Helping our wounded combat veterans after they’ve left the rehab center — because thousands of our troops suffer from PTSD, a signature injury of contemporary warfare.
And while our troops and veterans suffer, their families suffer along with them.
Threats, and potentially more work for our stressed troops, continue to mount in Pakistan and North Korea. And then there’s deadly Iraq where our troops could remain until after 2012, and Afghanistan. What is US security policy for these trouble spots, Gen. Jones?
The recession slices into the budgets of veterans’ groups. Meanwhile, the VA has launched a new web site to give counselors more help when working with wounded veterans studying on university and college campuses. A veterans health bill in New Mexico is in the works. Do we even know all of our wounded vets’ needs? New prosthetic arm with new mobility for veterans?
Time to really study the toxic fallout of those burn pits our troops were exposed to?