A Soldier's letter and 3 suicides in two weeks

“The surge is working.” In recent months, attacks have gone down. Many soldiers are shocked at how long it has been since they hit an IED in certain locations, or received incoming mortar rounds hit their camp. While there is a correlation (more troops, less attacks) there is no causation. Also, most of the influx of troops have been placed in Baghdad… this increase in volume simply displaced the “terrorists” and insurgents into areas surrounding Baghdad! Since the surge began, there have been more innocent, non-combatant Iraqis killed and more soldiers have died. We have had 3 suicides in 2 weeks!! Do you think the Army attracts suicidal people? Or perhaps the cost of carrying out U.S. foreign policy is making soldiers suicidal (15 month deployments, deployment extensions, stop-loss program, etc.)…

Day 11: Open Letter to Americans

December 22, 2007

Posted by captainj0e in Uncategorized. trackback
After breakfast and the morning update, the boss had meetings and briefing for the next 6 hours… I didn’t have a computer around so I decided to write a letter…[Note: I typed up this letter after handwriting it, and I am mailing it to 100 voters in every state before their primary, from Iraq]
Dear Voter,
My name is Joe. I am currently serving in my second deployment to Iraq as an Army officer. The biggest differences between this deployment and my last one are:
The location (within Iraq)
-The Job (much busier : less free time/sleep)
-The duration (last deployment was 12 months, this one is 15)
I am sure you are wondering why some random soldier in Iraq would write you a letter… there are several reasons, but the primary one will be obvious by the end. First I’ll tell you a little about myself.

I’m 26 years old, I’ve been married for almost 7 years, and I have a son and a daughter in elementary school. I grew up in Georgia, but I live in Colorado Springs now. I come from a long line of military officers, so I was sort of “destined” to serve. Although I only have 3 ½ years in the Army, I’ve been wearing the uniform for 12 years (JROTC & ROTC). I have a degree in computer science and I’m a music & movie enthusiast.

Now that you know a little about me, I’d like to inform you on what Iraq is really like.

Iraq is a war-torn country in political and engineering shambles. When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, the intent was to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Once that was done, the military then targeted all Ba’athists (members of Saddam’s political party) because they were assumed to be loyal to Saddam. The problem with this “eradication” was the Ba’athists were the people who managed Iraq’s infrastructure. So our targeting caused the collapse of all of their water, power, sewage, oil, and transportation capabilities!
http://captainj0e.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/day-11-open-letter-to-americans/

I said I would keep a fine line on politics out of this blog and I intend to do just that. If you want to hear my political views, hop on over to Screaming In An Empty Room by the link over on the right side of the blog. My heart is with them. I fight for them. I fight for them when they are risking their lives as hard as I do when their lives are at risk because they risked their lives.

I wanted to post this here for a very important reason. It's the same reason I do so very hard to watch videos. If we do not understand what it is like for them, if we gloss over all of it with "good news" or "high five for the surge" we will never understand totally what they go through. War is not pretty. It is not wrapped in a flag. They do not serve whomever happens to be president at the moment, but the office of the Presidency and the Commander-in-Chief. We talk a great deal about them following orders and doing their jobs but we fail when it comes to doing our jobs for them. The nation sent them to war, but the nation is not at war with them. We are forgetting all about them. They live, fight and die for their comrades. They want to come home to their families and friends and to get on with their lives when their mission is over. Most know their battles will never end without a great deal of therapy, medication and understanding.

This soldier wrote of three suicides in 2 weeks. It was during a letter where he also indicated that the attacks are down. That should tell you a great deal. It should also sound a huge alarm bell in your mind. The Army stated clearly over a year ago that the redeployments increase the risk of developing PTSD by 50% and yet we dare wonder why there are so many suicides. We send them back with medication when they are diagnosed with PTSD. When that doesn't work and their wound has cut too deeply into them, they are dishonorably discharged and discarded.

Think about all of this. If you still support what is being done in Iraq and more so if you don't, you need to face the fact that the men and women we as a nation sent into Iraq and Afghanistan need us to live up to our obligations to them. We on our own cannot make that big of a difference to them. We can help but we cannot get all of them into treatment and make sure their sacrifices do not have to continue in terms of financial suffering or emotionally when they are seeking help to heal.

People like me have been working to get rid of the stigma of PTSD and we will keep doing it but we cannot make sure the help we talk them into getting is waiting for them. We assumed it would be, but no one on the other end was ready for what we were warning about. Now it's your turn. Call you congressman and your senator and tell them to stop talking about doing something to address PTSD and do it. No more excuses. No more whining about Bush won't approve the funds. Get the rest of congress to act and get this done for their sake. The only people holding back fully funding what is needed on an emergency basis is congress. They know what they have to do but they won't.

Your senator and congressman are home for the holidays. Call them at home or go and ring their door bell if you have to. Go and stand outside their sidewalk and tell them the troops matter to you. They need your help. What are you waiting for? More graves for next Memorial Day?