Syracuse Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline answered 193,507 calls in 2012

There is an article on Syracuse.com about the veterans suicide prevention hotline. Aside from getting the number of military suicides wrong leaving off 84 Army National Guardsmen and 42 Army Reservists from the total they used of 349, it is a good read. This part really should shock everyone. Even as the number of suicides has gone up in the military, it has also gone up in the veteran population.

Take a look at the years and the rise in the number of calls this center received.

Answering the bell
The number of calls to the national Veterans Crisis Line in Canandaigua in the past six fiscal years:

2007: 9,379

2008: 67,350

2009: 118,984

2010: 134,528

2011: 164,101

2012: 193,507

Do you need any more evidence what the DOD is doing and the VA has been trying has not been working? The fact these veterans reached the point where suicide seemed to be the only way out of the pain they are in should be forcing all of us to demand answers from Congress on what has been fixed and what the plans are to fix what hasn't been fixed. If no plans then they need to be held accountable for all of this. Our taxes pay to send them to war. Our taxes are supposed to fund what they need when they come home. How can they be allowed to produce these results year after year and NO ONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE?