Iraq war vet who committed suicide: 'What the (expletive) kind of war is this?'"

[sabra]

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8TTRRCO0

Son's suicide prompts mother of Iraq vet to act

Cheryl Softich said she learned more about her son's experience as a soldier in Iraq through his vivid poetry and by driving home the truck in which he shot himself to death.

...

She said that although he grappled with PTSD, he would also routinely would miss his counseling appointments. Softich thinks there should be a "Noah Clause" written into every military contract requiring soldiers who see combat to receive counseling once they are home, at least once every two weeks for a year.

She plans to take that message to Congress.

"I will not stop until I have accomplished it," Softich said of the counseling requirement. "My husband said, 'I'll be here when you get done.'"

...

Softich wanted to make it clear, however, that she is not protesting against the war. She said she believed in the Iraq war "because my son believed in it." Pulling the troops out, she said, would invite another terrorist attack in the United States.

...

He wrote of gnawing guilt in "WTF," which told of his shooting of an Iraqi doctor, whom he had mistaken for a suicide bomber: "The investigation said it was done by the books / I ask myself, 'What the (expletive) kind of war is this?'"

[bunkerbuster1]

1. So this Specialist's death isn't counted among our fallen soldiers...

but it surely should.

Damn. Just damn.

[atreides1]

2. She said she believed in the Iraq war

I don't understand why she's going on this crusade, sure she wants counseling for the troops that see "combat", but she also wants more troops to see "combat"!

Maybe someone needs to point out to her that it seems kind of evident that by his writings he no longer believed "in it".

[redqueen]

6. She does put her support in the past tense.

I don't know why someone would state so plainly that they weren't against something though, if they had changed their mind.

She does still seem to believe the BS that somehow having no troops in Iraq means terrorist attacks here. *sigh*

What a sad story.

[Sugar Smack]

3. Here's news from a website dedicated to PTSD:

August 27, 2005 - 1 murder
A 23-year old Army specialist and Afghanistan combat engineer "(assigned to Echo Company, 1st Battalion of the 12th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division) was charged with first-degree murder by a court in Hamilton, Texas after he stabbed a white male in the lung in an apparent gang brawl." The suspect says he retrieved his blade and stabbed the victim (who died 4 days later) in self-defense.


August 12, 2005 - 2 injuries
A soldier named `Marine of the Year' for his Iraq service was arrested after firing upon a 15-year old girl and 20-year old man leaving a Massachusetts night club. The soldier's wife told police that her husband had been drinking and they'd been arguing shortly before the shooting. The couple have two children. The soldier was being held on $100,000 bail.


August 3, 2005 - 1 murder, 1 suicide
A 35-year old Fort Carson, CO 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldier who 9 days earlier had arrived stateside after being sent into combat in Iraq for a year from a South Korea base, shot his wife five times in the head and neck with a pistol before killing himself with a shotgun blast to the head. The couple were the parents of a toddler; neighbors said the soldier had signed up with the Army in Jan. 2004 for access to health benefits because his wife was expecting a baby.


August 2, 2005 - 1 murder, 1 injury
A 20-year old Iraqi veteran (who'd served in the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, TX and sought treatment for PTSD after his return), was arrested for the shooting death of a man and woman in a Las Vegas alley. The returning soldier was on a 1 am beer run to a 7-Eleven, wearing a black coat with an assault rifle tucked under his arm. The couple had apparently yelled at him to get out of an alley. After firing on them, the young soldier fled the scene and returned to his apartment for more ammunition.


July 29, 2005 - 1 possible suicide (death from natural causes?)
A Fort Riley, KS soldier was found dead in his quarters; no foul play is expected. The soldier was assigned to the 82nd Medical Company of the 541st Maintenance Battalion, and had served two stints in Iraq.


July 28, 2005 - 1 murder, 1 suicide
A 20-year old Marine based out of Camp Lejeune, NC and mysteriously, but honorably, discharged in February (and as of yet not a confirmed combat veteran - the military blaming a `disjointed database and filing system' for the delay in confirmation), killed his newly-enlisted 18-year old girlfriend with a shot to the back and then turned the shotgun on himself in Washington State.


July 26, 2005 - 1 suicide
A 23-year old Iraq combat vet, only 11 days earlier decorated with the Army's Combat Action Badge, shot himself in Tacoma, WA. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker himself had awarded this badge following the soldier's 15 months of combat duty ; he also received a purple heart and bronze star. A family member said, "The stress of having to kill while in battle really got to him."


:cry:

[Imagevision]

4. Sadly, 120 War Vets Commit Suicide Each Week...

<snip> Earlier this year, using the clout that only major broadcast networks seem capable of mustering, CBS News contacted the governments of all 50 states requesting their official records of death by suicide going back 12 years. They heard back from 45 of the 50. From the mountains of gathered information, they sifted out the suicides of those Americans who had served in the armed forces.

What they discovered is that in 2005 alone -- and remember, this is just in 45 states -- there were at least 6,256 veteran suicides, 120 every week for a year and an average of 17 every day.

Since these new wars began, and in spite of a continuous flood of alarming reports, the Department of Defense has managed to keep what has clearly become an epidemic of death beneath the radar of public awareness by systematically concealing statistics about soldier suicides. They have done everything from burying them on official casualty lists in a category they call "accidental noncombat deaths" to outright lying to the parents of dead soldiers.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has rubber-stamped their disinformation, continuing to insist that their studies indicate that soldiers are killing themselves, not because of their combat experiences, but because they have "personal problems."
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/68713/

[Sugar Smack]

5. EACH. WEEK.

Each week. It's worse than I fucking thought. :cry: GOD.

[countryjake]

8. Exactly! This is the statistic they don't want anyone to know about!

Good reasons why they don't want it to appear "worse" than you thought.

[sam sarrha]

7. she is in denial.. here are some links to soldier suicide..Link>>

http://www.vermontguardian.com/dailies/022006/020806.shtml

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22762457-5005961,00.html

so much for bu$h and his butt licking generals supporting the troops...