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A Soldier's Last Words: I Am Sorry It Has Come to This

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
Very sad. Doubtful this will make it into the MSM.

"Simple things that everyone else takes for granted are nearly impossible for me. I can not laugh or cry. I can barely leave the house. I derive no pleasure from any activity. Everything simply comes down to passing time until I can sleep again."

http://gawker.com/i-am-sorry-that-it-has-come-to-this-a-soldiers-last-534538357

p.s. I posted this in "Health News" because of the appalling lack of acknowledgement/care for his condition(s). If mods feel it should be elsewhere, please move it.
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
That is so very sad - such a young life lost.
Is it true 22 vets take their own life every day? The USA govt should be ashamed of what they have put these soldiers through - and he says no support either - the UK too but thats the same story....
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
So very sad indeed. Those who fight for their country deserve more. Did this soldier have GWI as well? I wonder. In any case he clearly needed more help than the doctors were willing or able to provide. 22 suicides per day is a little over 8000 per year. Thats a lot of dying veterans.

An even higher death rate is claimed (but I have not seen statistics to prove it) for disabled in the UK at the moment, however it is unclear what percentage is from suicide.
 

5150

Senior Member
Messages
360
i did read this. as a vietman combat veteran, it was hard to take. sorry, no startling revelations coming from me. but i did understand the message content. sure hope he didn't have ME too. talk about a hard row to hoe, i assure you.
 

urbantravels

disjecta membra
Messages
1,333
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Oh God, that's devastating.



This quote made me think he might have had GWI:

There might be some progress by now if they had not spent nearly twenty years denying the illness that I and so many others were exposed to.

But he wasn't in the Gulf War. There is some vagueness about "war-related illnesses" in the intro so it's hard to tell what he's referring to in that quote. He seems in the letter to be describing a very severe chronic pain condition, and he talks about not getting adequate medication and references the DEA, so it surely must have been pain medication that he needed.
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
Oh God, that's devastating.



This quote made me think he might have had GWI:



But he wasn't in the Gulf War. There is some vagueness about "war-related illnesses" in the intro so it's hard to tell what he's referring to.

I had the same thought, Urban. I suspect GWI extends now beyond the gulf war, due to extensive vaccination of soldiers and other agents they are exposed to.
 

5150

Senior Member
Messages
360
So very sad indeed. Those who fight for their country deserve more. Did this soldier have GWI as well? I wonder. In any case he clearly needed more help than the doctors were willing or able to provide. 22 suicides per day is a little over 8000 per year. Thats a lot of dying veterans.

An even higher death rate is claimed (but I have not seen statistics to prove it) for disabled in the UK at the moment, however it is unclear what percentage is from suicide.

hi alex, hope you are better.
i don't know what the current stats are on Viet vets' suicides, but long ago it surpassed the number of Americans killed there in the war itself: over 58,600. Astounding isn't it?
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
hi alex, hope you are better.
i don't know what the current stats are on Viet vets' suicides, but long ago it surpassed the number of Americans killed there in the war itself: over 58,600. Astounding isn't it?

Typical, not astounding, to me at least. Add in deaths from weird disease processes (agent orange etc.) and now with GWI from the Gulf War, and it means that governments deliberately hide the real human cost of these wars. Throw in the things this soldier saw that led to PTSD, thing which he called crimes, and there is a real question of cover-up.
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
i don't know what the current stats are on Viet vets' suicides, but long ago it surpassed the number of Americans killed there in the war itself: over 58,600.

Wow. I did not know this. How terrible.