Congress Wonders About Veteran Suicides
by James Glaser
December 13, 2007

A report by the Veterans Administration Inspector General, that came out last May told how VA officials estimate that 1,000 veterans receiving care from that agency commit suicide every year, while "as many as 5,000 per year among all veterans" kill themselves.

It is now December, and the House Veterans Affairs Committee is just now asking the question, does anyone keep track of these deaths?

Rep. Bob Filner, the committee chairman, questioned why the comprehensive tracking wasn't already being done.

"They don't want to know this, it looks to me," said Filner, D-Calif. "This could be tracked."

If The VA is admitting that a thousands vets they are treating commit suicide every year, I wonder what the real figure is. If the VA is guessing that 5,000 veterans are killing themselves every year, I have to ask why they are not calling these deaths an epidemic?

I have had to deal with the VA for thirty years now, and if they admit that 5,000 vets are committing suicide every year, my guess is that the number is way higher than that, but even at 5,000 a year, that means over 30,000 veterans have done themselves in since George Bush started his War on Terrorism.

And just now, Congress is starting to ask questions. Veterans have been committing suicide since we became a nation, but for some reason the VA, the Congress, and the White House never wanted to know how many were doing it.

Every vet who kills himself saves the Veterans Administration hundreds of thousands of dollars. I personally believe that the VA pushes a lot of veterans over the edge, and I know there are tens of thousands of veterans who agree with me on that.

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