5 Soldiers a day try to commit suicide by Senator Arlen Specter wants hearing on sports again

This is a bigger priority to Specter
Arlen Specter - The Huffington Post
That seems to be what Arlen Specter wants to know. He's asking why the NFL surreptitiously destroyed all the evidence associated with the Patriots' illicit ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/topics/Arlen%20Specter

Concern mounts over rising troop suicides

Story Highlights
Average of 5 soldiers per day tried to commit suicide in 2007, Army figures show

Sen. Jim Webb introduces legislation to improve care for soldiers

Army psychiatrist says soldiers must overcome stigma of treatment

Psychiatrist: "We know that soldiers don't want to go seek care"

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Every day, five U.S. soldiers try to kill themselves. Before the Iraq war began, that figure was less than one suicide attempt a day.

The dramatic increase is revealed in new U.S. Army figures, which show 2,100 soldiers tried to commit suicide in 2007.

"Suicide attempts are rising and have risen over the last five years," said Col. Elspeth Cameron-Ritchie, an Army psychiatrist.

Concern over the rate of suicide attempts prompted Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, to introduce legislation Thursday to improve the military's suicide-prevention programs.

"Our troops and their families are under unprecedented levels of stress due to the pace and frequency of more than five years of deployments," Webb said in a written statement. Watch CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre on the reasons for the increase in suicides »

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, took to the Senate floor Thursday, urging more help for military members, especially for those returning from war.

"Our brave service members who face deployment after deployment without the rest, recovery and treatment they need are at the breaking point," Murray said.

She said Congress has given "hundreds of millions of dollars" to the military to improve its ability to provide mental health treatment, but said it will take more than money to resolve the problem.

"It takes leadership and it takes a change in the culture of war," she said. She said some soldiers had reported receiving nothing more than an 800 number to call for help.

"Many soldiers need a real person to talk to," she said. "And they need psychiatrists and they need psychologists."

According to Army statistics, the incidence of U.S. Army soldiers attempting suicide or inflicting injuries on themselves has skyrocketed in the nearly five years since the start of the Iraq war.

Last year's 2,100 attempted suicides -- an average of more than 5 per day -- compares with about 350 suicide attempts in 2002, the year before the war in Iraq began, according to the Army.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/01/military.suicides/index.html

When will it become too many? More soldiers are trying to end their own lives than lives lost to combat. Five soldiers a day try to end their lives equals 35 a week. 120 veterans succeed at committing suicide each week. There are more who try to but by the grace of God they survive. Some will try again.

What are we doing? What is congress doing besides talking about it and under-funding it? Senator Specter part of the Republican leadership that held the power since the Clinton Administration, had been responsible at the time of the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Did he or any of the others hold the lives of the troops and our veterans in the highest regard? No, they wanted hearings on steroid abuse committed by sports players instead of soldiers. Again Specter wants hearings on the tapes concerning yet another sports team scandal, the Patriots. Is he out of his mind?

Our soldiers and veterans are committing suicide on a daily basis but he seems to find it more important to take issue with sports? They held more hearings on Terri Schiavo and her feeding tube being removed than they did on the fact the DOD and the VA were undercut by budgets that did not include the care of our soldiers and veterans. They put more interest on deciding what to call french fries than they did on what to do about all the wounded entering into an already overloaded VA. This is all too insane!

What is wrong with the GOP and what is wrong with the citizens of the states these people come from? What is their priority in all of this and why aren't their elected representatives listening to any of them? What is wrong with the Democrats holding office as well when they take the steps to correct the problems as if they are new problems and they have time to waste? While it is needed that new VA hospitals be built, it will take years for them to be open for business and many more years to be fully functional. What about between now and then?

I've heard the hearings and listened to the testimonies. What needs to be done has already been brought to their attention but apparently they have not acted on any of it. Veterans in rural areas of the nation need Veterans Centers up and running today, not five years from now. Families need support groups all across the country today, not sometime in the distant future.

It's time America got serious about who the real heroes in this nation are and it isn't the sports players. It's the men and women risking their lives on a daily basis for what this nation asked them to do and many more who will see their lives as well as futures at risk because the nation they served abandoned them.

The soldiers and veterans need every single one of us standing up for their sake. Call your elected official today.