Your "queries" are fascinating. Many on this thread supporting our troops have indicated that even one suicide is unacceptable. OF COURSE one suicide is unacceptable - in the military or in civilian life. This is a horrible situation, and my first response was to pray for all involved, including this dear man's family. It was your citing suicide statistics without any supporting statements or disclaimers that made you suspect. If you are unaware of the leftist tactic of stating such evidence in order to accuse our troops and belittle them, then you need to become aware of that vile tactic and not emulate it. The casualty count, the suicide rate, the murder rate - all have been celebrated by the left as fodder to turn the American people against our military, President Bush, and OIF. Your list of partial information pointed to the probability that you were doing the same exact thing here. The greatest lie is that which contains the greatest amount of truth. What you left out was critical. Your omiting your support for the troops was critical.
Of course I absolutely believe that everything possible should be done to deal with the effects of serving this nation in combat. Our personal experience has been that help has been readily available to all who are returning - and obviously the presence of this clinic at Liberty is an indication that it is being dealt with in the field as well. Your insinuation that any of us here think differently is reprehensible....especially those of us with families involved.
As to the Gates quote, it is terribly naive. The press is not only in bed with the enemy, it is indeed the enemy. If you trust anything the NYTimes says about our troops, you are also naive.
I still want to know what you think of the mission in Iraq. It is not as broad a question as you have said, and it is quite relevant to the discussion and your insistence on citing statistics without corresponding support of the men and women in uniform. I wonder why you have continued to evade answering it?
btw, anyone can claim anything on the Internet, so my believing that you indeed have served in the military without any supporting evidence would also be naive (Leftists also do that all the time). Once again - what is your rationale for refusing to answer basic questions about your views on the military until now? Why the lack of straightforwardness? Why the contortions to avoid declaring your intention?
You could have saved us both a lot of time by being up front and honest. There must be some reason you were not.
“Your insinuation that any of us here think differently is reprehensible ....especially those of us with families involved.”
This is the crux of the issue which irritates me to no end. I don’t have the time to go thru the posts of every article dealing with combat stress or PTS to pull out all of the asinine comments that call the condition a lie, the ones who claim it are p*ssies, soldiers in WWII didn’t get it, and my particular favorite, “they just need to suck it up.”
The condition is there, it’s real and I will continue to decry those who dispute otherwise and will continue to be a clarion to change the cultural stigma associated with seeking help.
If that categorizes or characterizes me as not patriotic, supposedly naive, not pro-whatever enough, that’s OK. Emerald Shellback can take it.