CBS News Reveals Shocking Report on Vet Suicides

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Editor&Publisher

By E&P Staff
Published: November 13, 2007

NEW YORK More than virtually any other news outlet in the "mainstream" media, E&P for years has repeatedly reported on the little-covered syndrome of suicides among U.S. troops in Iraq (now in the hundreds)-- or after they return home. Now CBS News has taken a broader look at the shocking trend.

Correspondent Armen Keteyian presented an overview on the CBS "Early Show" today, with more to come tonight. More will surface on the CBS Evening News tonight and tomorrow.

Here is an except from the CBS summary at www.cbsnews.com

*

Some of America's 25 million veterans face their biggest fight when they return home from the battlefield -- when they take on mental illness. And, a CBS News analysis reveals they lose that battle, and take their own lives, at a clip described by various experts as "stunning" and "alarming," according to Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian. One called it a "hidden epidemic." He says no one had ever counted just how many suicides there are nationwide among those who had served in the military -- until now.

The five-month CBS News probe, based upon a detailed analysis of data obtained from death records from 2004 and 2005, found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 as non-vets. A recent Veteran Affairs Department estimate says some 5,000 ex-servicemen and women will commit suicide this year, largely as a result of mental health issues, and Keteyian says, "Our numbers are much higher than that, overall." He says the numbers in the CBS News study shocked everyone from Sen. Patty Murray (D, Wash.) to veterans' rights advocate Paul Sullivan....

Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003671826

[maxsolomon]

1. raise your hands if you're shocked.

war is not healthy for children & other living things.

wake up patty murray.

[rodeodance]

6. not really but to see it in print takes me back. so sad.

[TomInTib]

2. And you can bet your ass that VA and DoD have known it all along.

I wonder what parameters they are setting.

[TexasLawyer]

3. Yet another sad thing about this

... is that E&P felt it was "news" that the suicide story is actually receiving the MSM coverage that the story deserves.

[fed-up]

4. sounds similar to "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" which dealt w/Depleted Uranium-nt

[Doctor_J]

5. The MSM must have found a way to blame this on Bill Clinton

otherwise why publicize it now, when the WH meme is that the occupation is going so well?

Sorry, but I don't trust the Couric Broadcast System as far as I could throw Bill Bennett

[AnneD]

7. Anyone .....

that has seen friends and loved ones go off to war know this. It is no surprise-the fact that there is less shame to seek out help is one of the reasons these kids are showing up sooner.

[lovuian]

8. Whatever the programming Service is doing on our soldiers

is only encouraging their self destructiveness

[Bigmack]

9. I searched at freepville....

and they've got nothing about this.

[Quantess]

10. Nobody wants to post it

How would anyone respond? It would be awkard.