Tag Archives: Suicides

Closing Gitmo not opening it wide

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Not only is the infamous Guantanamo prison camp NOT CLOSING, its criminal record grows, and now the illegal facility is being expanded to lasso Haitian migrants escaping the devastation of Haiti’s earthquake. Will they be tortured as well? The way Obama is moving on civil rights, we may never know.

We have learned that three of the prison’s suicides, the mysterious coordinated attack of suicide-suiciders for which US military spokesmen accused the detainees of asymmetric warfare, were actually deaths at the hands of torturers. Though officials claimed to have discovered the bodies in their cells, camp guards have revealed that the prisoners were actually taken from the interrogation rooms, having suffocated from water-boarding. Coroners trying to establish the causes of death were hampered by the fact that Gitmo physicians had surgically removed key telltale body parts in the interest of national security.

Diverting attention from the murder story are preparations to expand Guantanamo to greet an anticipated wave of Haitian migrant refugees escaping the earthquake devastation. Just part of the militarization of aid giving.

A processing center is being readied at Guantanamo where Haitians can be returned to Haiti nearly as soon as they are intercepted at sea. Ever gracious, the US reveals that some Haitians will be considered for entry to the US. Temporary work permits will be granted to some Haitians, but only those who can show that they were in the US at the time of the January 12 earthquake.

Army offers Mental Resiliency Training to harden the conscience against PTSD

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What do you make of the VA study indicating that more stateside military drone operators suffer higher Post Traumatic Stress Disorder than soldiers in actual combat? It may point to the obvious, that PTSD comes less from being shell-shocked under fire and more from committing deeds to haunt the conscience. If our troops weren’t being asked to act inhumanely, perhaps we’d see fewer suicides, or homeless and maladapted vets. Instead the Army has announced it will give all its soldiers “mental resiliency training.” This might inoculate their fear of coming home to face their loved ones, but will it steel them against redemption?

Support Our Homeless Troops

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COLORADO SPRINGS- I watched yesterday as a group of homeless men disbanded beneath an underpass. I remarked how their yet unbent frames and close-shaved heads made them appear more menacing than usual. Then I noticed one had a graphite prosthetic calf, and I thought about our vets who disappear themselves into being vagabonds. Homelessness is elective you could say, like despondency or suicide. If one in four of America’s homeless are veterans, why not tell us what that fraction amounts to? They must know.

Americans were just leaked the number of suicides among our soldiers and veterans. It’s more even than have died in the Iraq war. We hear about the seemingly haphazard suicides, self-destructive acts and reckless endangerments, but who puts it together? Did you imagine the tally as a result of the war would be so high?

Probably the incidence of PTSD, they say now 30%, is equally under-documented. Who will contravene with the VA, the DoD and the State Department to give us the real totals?

Americans recently honored the 4,000th US casualty in Iraq. What was THAT milestone for? The American Friends Service Committee had been circulating a collection of army boots –Eyes Wide Open, before the number became unmanageable– to correspond to the official US losses. It didn’t occur to me how some military families might feel left out by that count. What about the non-combat deaths, or the wounded who expire stateside? What about the suicides, or the brain-dead? What about the broken bodies who would be over-represented by a pair of boots, who would need a single boot, or none at all?

What is the real figure so far, of US lives sacrificed to the war? What fraction of a Vietnam wall memorial are they setting aside for the true casualty count? Enough for ten thousand? Is our tally of wasted-lives several times that?

I want to know where are the yokels who make a big deal about supporting the troops? Where are they while homeless vets look for heat and food? Where is the support for young men haunted to the point of committing suicide? Is that yellow sticker on your car the furthest extent to which you support the troops? Do you hope your sticker remains obscured in the garage until the homeless vets pass?

I hope the yellow ribbon Support the Troops sticker comes to mean you’re good for a meal, a ride, a place to sleep, or spare change for a drink. I didn’t support the troops, what they did and still do, or the trouble they find themselves in now that their killing duty is served. You encouraged them, you’re still welcoming them home and cheering their continued deployment. You broke these young men, now support them.