Question

[MurphOnMillerAve]

We can end a war. We can't erase the scars left by war. It's a sad time when our vets are homeless or living day to day with medical bills they can't afford.

Then the country has been wrong to assume its grateful, stalwart government has been taking care of its Veterans? Wouldn't that be outrageous and unjust?

[robert.]

I copied this from a website...The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states that the nation’s homeless veterans are predominantly male, with roughly 9% being female. The majority are single; live in urban areas; and suffer from mental illness, alcohol and/or substance abuse, or co-occurring disorders. About 11% of the adult homeless population are veterans.

Roughly 45% of all homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 10.4% and 3.4% of the U.S. veteran population, respectively.

Homeless veterans are younger on average than the total veteran population. Approximately 9% are between the ages of 18 and 30, and 41% are between the ages of 31 and 50. Conversely, only 5% of all veterans are between the ages of 18 and 30, and less than 23% are between 31 and 50.

America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq (OEF/OIF), and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era. Two-thirds served our country for at least three years, and one-third were stationed in a war zone.

About 1.4 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing....

[Roy]

TV channel WPIX:
"Homeland Diaries: America's Veterans":
Department of Veterans Affairs reports 20 suicides per day of Veterans!!!!!!

What is going on - what has happened to them?!
Per day!?

This number has been out there a while. Don't you read or watch the news? There was a big scandal about the VA delaying treatment of vets.

[HONDO74]

Another good reason for the US to stop being the world police force.....

[MurphOnMillerAve]

TV channel WPIX:
"Homeland Diaries: America's Veterans":
Department of Veterans Affairs reports 20 suicides per day of Veterans!!!!!!

What is going on - what has happened to them?!
Per day!?

This number has been out there a while. Don't you read or watch the news? There was a big scandal about the VA delaying treatment of vets.
.......................................................................................................................
Yes, I do watch the news, which is why I finally decided to bring this question here. (Don't get snotty or bitchy with me, please, Roy. You get-off on being condescending, don't you. Frankly, I like pleasant people, who know how to talk to others, without talking downwards.)

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Another good reason for the US to stop being the world police force.....

TRUE, IMHO. I still can't figure out why we feel we have to do that, but suspect money must be at the root of it all.

[Tom Dempsey]

(Don't get snotty or bitchy with me, please, Roy. You get-off on being condescending, don't you. Frankly, I like pleasant people, who know how to talk to others, without talking downwards.)

Damn good advice, take it.

[Roy]

TV channel WPIX:
"Homeland Diaries: America's Veterans":
Department of Veterans Affairs reports 20 suicides per day of Veterans!!!!!!

What is going on - what has happened to them?!
Per day!?

This number has been out there a while. Don't you read or watch the news? There was a big scandal about the VA delaying treatment of vets.

Yes, I do watch the news, which is why I finally decided to bring this question here. (Don't get snotty or bitchy with me, please, Roy. You get-off on being condescending, don't you. Frankly, I like pleasant people, who know how to talk to others, without talking downwards.)

Murph, when I get snotty or bitchy, you'll really know it. I had no intention of being condescending. I've read on this very board that some folks deliberately avoid the news. You sound shocked at some things like they are news, when in fact the information has been out there a while. That suggested to me that you don't regularly follow the news.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

(to no avail.)

[robert.]

We're killing our soldiers with high levels of adrenaline/cortisol. Flight or fight. Studies are showing high levels of cortisol can change your dna. These guys get pumped up on it way to many times. A human body can't take the constant levels they see. It's far to much stress for the body. Then when they come home nothing around them is able to cause a production of normal levels needed. This is where the depression sets in..War has caused them to become adrenaline junkies.They are not getting a normal amount for daily life. All this while a few people make billions. Modern day slavery. Let the PC. police jump on that one. I would bring everybody home from foreign soil. Let other countries fight for their own freedom and die for their cause.

[rex desilets]

Robert, your point about PTSD is well taken. I read a book (have to go dig it up) about the experience of a soldier in Iraq. His VA treatment was to hook him on drugs. It really is an indictment of the VA. And, also, violation of the WWII rule that a soldier was not effective beyond 90 days of frontline action. Violated, of course, frequently. The problem is worse, now, with extended deployments in hellholes such as Afghanistan.
At the end of WWII troops were "allowed" to decompress with their buddies in-theater followed by a lengthy sea voyage home. Now, we take them from the battlefield and set them down in a foreign environment almost instantaneously with their mental problems intact.
I suspect that a contributor to current problems is the all-volunteer military. When it was composed mostly of draftees there was considerable pressure to limit the abuses today's volunteers suffer. A sidelight is the atomic bombing of Japan: after the losses during the Pacific campaigns, especially after Okinawa, the demands to stop the carnage made it evident that the country would not tolerate the 1M+ casualties that invasion would have cost. E.g, the political dimension was likely larger than the military one.
Finally, I concur with the sentiment that the US should stop being the world's policeman. Unfortunately we don't have much of a choice, given that we are long past the days of two-ocean isolation. However, today's ROE hamstring the US so that it seems better or easier to sacrifice volunteer soldiers rather than "going Roman" on our enemies.

[rogruth]

How many veterans of U.S, military service are alive today?

[Tom Dempsey]

I suspect that a contributor to current problems is the all-volunteer military.

+1,000 Rex. And I've felt for quite some time that the all-volunteer military is an excellent example of political lack of intestinal fortitude on all counts. If the folks who send these kids off to war had to chance sending their own kids off, maybe we wouldn't see forever engagements. I also think that multiple deferrments should automatically preclude you from being considered for high office.

[rex desilets]

<snip> I also think that multiple deferments should automatically preclude you from being considered for high office.

Not sure about that. OTOH, military service should be an important qualification for high office. Too damn many people setting policy have never worn the uniform and don't understand what it means. In contrast, Trump seems to worship the military and I ain't sure that's a good thing, either.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

How many veterans of U.S, military service are alive today?

Roughly 20 million