CBS News has uncovered a total disaster. Via The Huffington Post:
"Stunning": CBS News Discovers "Hidden Epidemic" of Military Suicides
Tonight CBS will air the first of a two-part series on the "hidden epidemic" of military suicides, revealing numbers that CBS calls "stunning." The report examines data on the suicide rate amongst veterans once they return home, which indicates a serious mental health issue — and a hidden mortality rate.
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Keteyian previewed the segment on the "CBS Early Show" today, saying that the CBS five-month study found that vets were "more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 as non-vets." Chillingly, though the Veterans Affairs Department estimates that "some 5,000 ex-servicemen and women will commit suicide this year,' that's a lowball estimate. Said Keteyian: "Our numbers are much higher than that, overall."
(Update, 5:30pm: CBS has just released some of those numbers: "At least 120 Americans who served in the U.S. military killed themselves per week in 2005, CBS News learned in a five-month investigation into veteran suicides. That's 6,256 veteran suicides in one year, in 45 states.")
The first thing that popped into my mind when I read the article above was this: I have people come up to me all the time to thank me for my service. This happens to all veterans who’ve served in Iraq or Afghanistan. So that makes me wonder: Where’s the disconnect? If Americans are so appreciative of our service, why can’t veterans get the care they need? Why is the suicide rate so catastrophically high?
Don’t people care about how veterans are treated once they make it home?
To find out, I went over to Fox News to see what people were actually reading on that site. I took a screen shot of the "Most Read" articles at 1:09 AM CT, on November 14, 2007. I figured it would give me a good snapshot of what Americans really cared about—and I figured those things would include, if not veterans’ issues, then at least the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan.
Here is the screen shot:
The articles above are what Fox News readers care about. Those are the "Most Read" articles on their "news" web site. Nothing about suicides. Nothing about Iraq. Nothing about Afghanistan. Instead, they’re reading about a doctor nabbed in a sex sting. A man chased by police and then eaten by an alligator. A man who died after getting stuck in a cat door. A Kim Kardashian sex tape. And a lawsuit over "Hannah Montana" tickets.
Meanwhile:
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Joseph M. Vanek, 22, of Elmhurst, Ill., died Nov. 12 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
A grateful nation?
Cross-posted at VetVoice