FORWARD OBSERVER

Suicide Watch

Mon. May 12, 2008


Congress, alarmed and saddened by the high number of military people driven to committing suicide to end the mental pain they suffer during and after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, is moving toward making it the law of the land that the Pentagon and Veterans Administration do more to treat the invisible wounds inflicted in wars that have no fronts nor straightforward commands like "take the hill."

Horror stories lawmakers are hearing from families about lack of treatment, evidence coming to light in the media and in court cases about government cover-ups, and reports suggesting post-combat stress is approaching an epidemic have fueled congressional frustration, concern and legislative action this election year.

Although the cost of treating over 300,000 traumatized veterans for a lifetime will be gigantic, the prevailing attitude among the lawmakers seems to be this bill must be paid, no matter how high.

That bill coming due is a big reason that Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes wrote this in their new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War:" "We estimate that the total budgetary and economic cost to the United States [of the Iraq war] will turn out to be around $3 trillion, with the cost to the rest of the world perhaps doubling that number again. ... Some 38 percent of the veterans treated so far -- an unprecedented number -- have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. Mental health disorders are extremely costly, both because they require long-term treatment and because those who suffer from them have a greater tendency to develop physical medical problems."

Congressional frustration with the Bush administration, especially the VA, is boiling over.

This was dramatized at a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing last Tuesday. Veterans Affairs Chairman Bob Filner opened the hearing by playing two CBS News clips: "Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans" and, "The VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-mails Show."

One e-mail that came to light in a lawsuit against the VA and spotlighted by CBS was written by Ira Katz, the VA's mental health chief.

"Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities," Katz wrote. He then asked: "Is this something we should carefully address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?"

Filner then lambasted Veterans Affairs Secretary Peake, saying the VA either did not know the scope of the suicide problem -- "which I think is an indictment of the competence of the VA," he said -- or knows about it and is trying to cover it up.

"We should all be angry at what has gone on here," Filner said, accusing Peake and his deputies of not leveling with the panel.

Filner said the VA's past testimony looks like it was "posturing before this committee; not telling the truth to us, talking about how to deal with statistics without informing this committee.

"What we see is a pattern, Mr. Secretary," Filner continued. "A pattern going back to the days of atomic testing, through the Agent Orange controversies of Vietnam, depleted uranium, Gulf War illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, suicides, homelessness. The same pattern that really reveals a culture of a bureaucracy.

"The pattern is, 'Deny, deny, deny it.' Then when facts seemingly come to disagree with that denial, you cover up, cover up, cover up. When the cover-up falls apart, you admit a little bit of the problem and underplay it. And then finally, maybe, you admit there's a problem, and then, way after the fact, try to come to grips with it. We've seen it again and again and again.

"This is a matter of life and death for the veterans we are responsible for. And I think there's criminal negligence in the way [the information about veterans' suicides] was handled. If we do not know what the problem is, then the problem will continue, and people die. If that's not criminal negligence, I don't know what is," Filner said.

Peake, in discussing Katz's e-mail, said his deputy was not trying to cover up information about veterans' suicides but instead "appropriately was concerned about releasing information that was not validated and was so very preliminary. The data was clearly not adequate."

Adequate or not, the egg is out of the chicken. Congress is demanding the Bush administration give an accounting of such suicides.

One such demand comes from Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, in the form of legislation to require the VA to tell Congress within six months of passage how many veterans committed suicide annually since Jan. 1, 1997 -- both within VA facilities and outside them.

No president would dare veto such legislation; the commander in chief would have to come up with a program to address the problem and not oppose spending billions of dollars to ease the pain of service personnel and their families. Congressional Democrats are sure to win this one.

by George C. Wilson

Mon. May 12, 2008

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