As I have posted here previously -- numerous times -- I have followed the scourge of U.S. soldier suicides ever since the start of the Iraq war more than five years ago. At times, I was fairly alone in this, at least in the media, and the issue features strongly in my new book on Iraq and the media. But a new development really should sicken all of us - even as it sparks some long overdue attention and action.
Earlier this week, in federal court in San Francisco, attorneys for veterans' groups accused the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs of a shocking cover-up in apparently lying about the epidemic of suicides among veterans. Internal emails written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health, seem to bear this out. Now two U.S. senators have called for his head.
Much of this stemmed from a CBS probe of suicides late last year, perhaps the first major media pursuit into this matter, which I had called for repeatedly, along with my friend Paul Reickhoff.
"There is no epidemic in suicide in VA," Katz told CBS last November. He had informed CBS that there were only 790 suicide attempts for all of 2007. And he attacked CBS numbers that suggested otherwise.
But in a February 2008 e-mail to his top media adviser, Katz wrote: "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities." CBS notes today, "it appears that Katz went out of his way to conceal these numbers."
How's this: Katz titled his e-mail: "Not for the CBS News Interview Request" and opened it with "Shh!' Beautiful.
The e-mail ended: "Is this something we should (carefully) address ... before someone stumbles on it?"
On Monday, CBS News showed the e-mail to Rep. Bob Filner ( D-Ca.) who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. "This is disgraceful. This is a crime against our nation, our nation's veterans," Filner replied. "They do not want to come to grips with the reality, with the truth."
As I have noted before, several hundred U.S. military personnel have killed themselves in Iraq -- and many more than that back here at home. And, of course, the mental/brain injuries and trauma go well beyond that, with a Rand Corp. study just last week indicating that more than 300,000 vets suffer from some sort of mental distress or injury.
In response to the latest revelations, two U.S. senators have now called for Dr. Katz, to resign.
Plus, two other senators have taken action to get at the true scope of the suicide problem. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin introduced legislation Tuesday calling on the VA to track how many veterans commit suicide each year. The agency has long been reluctant to disclose specific numbers, veterans rights advocates have charged. The bill would require the VA to report to Congress within 180 days on the number of veterans who have died by suicide since Jan. 1, 1997 -- and continue reports annually.
The two senators calling for Katz's ouster are also two Democrats, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Patty Murray of Washington. "Dr. Katz's irresponsible actions have been a disservice to our veterans, and it is time for him to go," said Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "The No. 1 priority of the VA should be caring for our veterans, not covering up the truth."
Akaka, the committee's chairman, said in a letter to the VA that Katz's "personal conduct and professional judgment" had been called into question by his response to veteran suicides. Veterans "would be best served by his immediate resignation," Akaka said.
Sen. Harkin has responded: "It is completely outrageous that the federal agency charged with helping veterans would instead cover up the hard truth -- that more and more Americans coming home after bravely fighting for their country are suffering from mental illnesses and in the most tragic circumstances, committing suicide. Anyone at the VA who is involved in this cover-up should be removed immediately."
*
Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq, the first five-year history of the war. It has been hailed by Glenn Greenwald, Bill Moyers, and others.
Online Resource LInks for Veterans.
My experience in 2003 at a military base shows that from the beginning of the Iraq war it has been US military policy to replace mental health professionals with chaplains throughout the army, to deny and hide the existence of PSTD and other mental health disorders among the soldiers, and to punish those soldiers who sought professional help. I believe this policy is directly responsible for the suicides, spousal batterings, and other severe mental health problems of US veterans of the Iraq war.
In the Spring of 2003 I attended a professional workshop offered on how to treat PSTD in the military, at the US Marine Base, Camp Pendeleton.
All sessions were in a large auditorium of over a thousand people in uniforms from all branches of the military. There was no instruction whatsoever in how to treat PTSD, no opportunity to ask questions, and no small group sessions.
Instead, there was speech after speech touting the amazing fact that during the current military operations PTSD was non-existent.
All the speakers denigrated the ability of mental health personnel to understand or deal with the problems of troops. It was presented as fact that PTSD was avoided by the outstanding leadership of military officers, and by counseling from chaplains.
There are good reasons for the US to have standing military, reserves and guards in readiness. Colonialism is not one of them. The belief that having a strong military is justification enough for their use for territorial or economic expansion is criminal
The CheneyOilCo has broken military systems that were designed for purposes other than colonial acquisition. The men and women who volunteered to serve the purposes for which they were designed, have been deceived into believing that their efforts in Iraq served a just purpose.
However, as increasingly more of those men and women come to terms with the reality of the "big lie", their options are few. To provide effective care and treatment for those who can no longer deal with that lie, would force concessions from those who do not want the substance of the lie revealed to a compliant populous. Thousands of active and former military personnel can not be suicidal without admitting to the American people that the military is broken... and has been for some years.
The actions of those like Katz, although only a reflection of policies from above, should be seen as what they really are. Treasonous. They leave the US without a healthy military to perform the task for which they were designed. Bring the troops home now. We have all suffered enough for big oil.
alienated in Seattle
Mr. Mitchell, please keep up the good and noble work.