"Violence and the Military" only part of the story

Violence and the Military by Elspeth Cameron Ritchie on Time's Battleland seems to be more about headline grabbing than anything else. As I read it, I wondered why it was not mentioned that with over 2 million veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, there are very few committing crimes?

Why would this simple fact be left out? Easy. It doesn't bleed so they won't let it lead.

Ritchie writes

I certainly do not want to add to the stigma by highlighting these examples of violence. Veterans are already too high on the list of those who are unemployed. But if there is a trend, we need to know about it. Read more

Ritchie's article is part of the reason so many of them are unemployed. It is reporting like this that will leave the impression our veterans are someone to fear.

In 2011 the population of the USA was 311,591,917 but we only have about 24 million veterans and less than 1% serve in the military today. While the media loves to make sure they mention Iraq Veteran or Afghanistan Veteran in their headlines, much as they did with Vietnam Veterans linked to crimes, no one seems willing to also mention the fact that as veterans are rare in this country, those committing crimes are even more rare.

One other thing that keeps getting omitted from reports is that if the serviceman or woman has been discharged, they are no longer counted by the military in any reports including suicides. If they are not in the VA system, they are not counted by the Veterans Affairs either. In other words, with all the figures we read, the majority of this minority are not counted by anyone.

The data has been in for a long time going back to Vietnam veterans but reporters didn't seem to care about the vast majority coming home, raising families, going to work, contributing to their communities, joining forces to make life better for all veterans all while living with the memories of combat.

I usually love to read what Ritchie writes but this time I closed the link pissed off.

Yes, they need to report on a lot of things from medications linked to suicides and crimes just as much as they should be investigating the failure of "Resiliency Training" brainwashing these men and women into believing if they end up with PTSD it is their fault and there is something wrong with them. They need to report on the homeless veterans because they are not getting the right kind of help for PTSD, have to turn to drugs and alcohol so they get numb to the pain just as much as they need to investigate the failures of the VA, millions of tax dollars being wasted on what does not work along with charities taking in donations for the veterans while giving very little to veterans.

They need to report on things that do actually work, veterans taking their own pain to the public so that other veterans won't have to go it alone along with the general public benefitting from their work. If you've seen a mental health worker, psychologist or had a crisis responder come to your aid, it is because Vietnam Veterans fought for it. When civilians are in trouble, it is usually a veteran showing up to help.

Veterans join the National Guards and they show up after a natural disaster. National Guardsmen usually go into law enforcement and fire departments or work as emergency responders in other fields. Then there are the medical advancements accomplished by government funding for the VA in burn units, taking care of amputees and research in TBI and PTSD. None of these things we talk about everyday get into the reporting done as much as the trouble thy get into.

The above article is part of the problem, asking questions that do not lead to answers as much as they lead to conclusions.