Veteran Suicides - An Unintended Consequence of America's "Big Stick" Foreign Policy

With moves by the current administration and chief current warhawk Mike Pompeo in particular, it is appearing increasingly likely that further actions in Iran will require that the United States put additional "boots on the ground" in the Persian Gulf region.  Thanks to data compiled by the Veteran's Administration, we have a pretty good idea how service in the United States military ends up impacting individuals that are forced to fight Washington's battles while those who make the decision to declare war sit safely and snuggly in their padded Congressional seats.

In a 2019 report:

...the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (or VA) looks at suicide statistics for Americans as a whole and compares the growth in non-veteran suicides to those Americans who have served their nation and are now veterans.  The report opens by noting that in 2017, in the United States, there were 39,251 non-veteran suicides and 6,139 veteran suicides meaning that one in every 6.4 suicides (or 13.5 percent) was a veteran.  This works out to an average of 16.8 veteran suicides every day in the United States.   In addition, there were 919 suicides among never federally activated National Guard and Reserve members in 2017, an average of 2.5 suicide deaths per day.  This brings the total to 7,058 suicide deaths in 2017 and an average of 19.3 suicide deaths per day.

Here is a graph showing the annual number of veteran suicides over the period between 2005 and 2017:

Here is a table showing the same data along with the average number of suicides per day:

In the fine print under the table we find this disclaimer:

"Previous VA reporting regarding average suicide deaths per day included suicides among Title 38 Veterans, current service members and former never federally activated Guard and Reserve members. In reporting on suicide deaths through 2016, information was provided regarding Title 38 Veterans and, separately, the number of deaths among former never federally activated Guard and Reserve. In this year’s report, we focus on the Title 38 Veterans, and in supplemental reporting, we provide not only counts but also rates for the former never federally activated Guard and Reserve. Information regarding suicide among current service members is available from the Department of Defense Suicide Prevention Office." (my bolds)

By removing current (active) service members , National Guardsmen and reservists, comparisons to the past levels of suicide among veterans become confusing as shown in this article in Military Times.

The report includes this graphic which shows the number of annual suicide deaths among non-veterans and veterans from 2005 to 2017 which makes the veteran suicide situation look positively rosy when compared to Main Street America:

This graph is somewhat misleading; while the number of non-veteran suicides grew from 31,160 to 45,390 over the twelve year period, an increase of 45.7 percent, the number of veteran suicides grew from 5,787 to 6,139, an increase of only 6.1 percent.  The problem is that this does not take into account the growth in the non-veteran population (an increase of 17.0 percent) and the shrinking number of veterans over the twelve year period (a decrease of 18.3 percent).  If we use the rate per 100,000 people, the age- and sex-adjusted suicide rate for the overall U.S. population increased from 14.7 suicides per 100,000 to 18.0 per 100,000 between 2005 and 2017, an increase of 22 percent)  The age- and sex-adjusted suicide rate for veterans increased from 18.5 suicides per 100,000 to 27.7 per 100,000 between 2005 and 2017, an increase of 49.7 percent or nearly twice that of the non-veteran population.  When these corrections for age, sex and population are included, this is what happened to the suicide rate among veterans between 2005 and 2017:

When adjusted for population, differences in age and gender, the suicide rate for veterans is 1.5 times that of non-veteran adults.  Not surprisingly given their training, firearms were the method of suicide in 70.7 percent of male veteran suicide deaths and 42.3 percent of female veteran suicide deaths in 2017.

  

This is yet another unintended consequence of America's flawed "big stick" foreign policy, one that requires armed intervention.  Obviously, the steps that are being taken by the Veterans Administration to reduce the number of veteran suicides has been an abject failure.  While Washington expects that Main Street Americans will volunteer to lay down their lives for a war with an unclear purpose and a dubious outcome, we can count on one thing; they will not be there to help veterans when they really need help.

Canada's Veterans and Anybody But Conservatives

In case you've forgotten this:

Please remember this when you vote on October 19, 2015:

After all, despite what he keeps telling us, we'll still have our freedom and our nation long after Stephen Harper is but a bitter memory, thanks to Canada's veterans.

And, let's not forget, when the bullets started to fly and his fellow Conservative MPs were under fire, this is what our illustrious Prime Minister did:

Caring for America's Veterans....Or Not

On February 27th, 2014, by a vote of 44 to 52, the U.S. Senate failed to Table S. 1982, otherwise known as the "Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014".

This Bill, introduced on February 3rd, 2014 and sponsored by Senator Bernard Sanders (I - Vermont) and 28 Democratic co-sponsors was to do the following for hundreds of thousands more veterans every year:

It was estimated by the CBO that the Bill would cost $21 billion over 10 years and had the backing of all major U.S. veterans'  groups and millions of America's 22 million veterans, including more than 2 million who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Senate Republicans also attempted to attach a provision (the Burr Bill) to the Bill that would have imposed new sanctions on Iran.   The Bill was defeated by Senate Republicans

I think that it is important to see who voted against S.1982 (i.e. those Senators who voted "Yea" on the procedural vote):

Here's what one of the Republican naysayers, Jeff Sessions (R-AL) who helped to defeat the Tabling of the Bill, had to say:

" So now we have a veterans bill before us. Nobody, I do not believe, is more committed to veterans in this body than I have been, and so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle want to do the right thing for veterans. But it is an audacious thing we are seeing here today...


I say to Senator Sanders and colleagues, the pending measure before us today, S. 1982, the Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014--which is a good title  for a bill--would cause the aggregate level of budget authority and outlays for fiscal year 2014, deemed pursuant to section 111 of Public Law 113-67, to be exceeded. Therefore, I raise a point of order under section 311(a)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

It is using the veterans as a political tool, in my view. I do not think our veterans want their programs to be enhanced if every penny of money that is going to enhance those programs is added to the debt of the United States of America..

Our voters deserve better. Look at how they tend to maneuver this legislation. It is so absurd sometimes. We should laugh about it if it were not so serious. It is serious. The Sanders bill, the veterans’ bill--we are being told we must vote for it or they will accuse us of being unkind and unsupportive and unsympathetic to our veterans. That day is over. We are not going to be intimidated on this. We are going to do the right thing for veterans and America." (my bold)

Senator Sessions seemed far more concerned about the issue of the Democrats deliberately “busting” the Budget Control Act than he was about veterans, despite his protestations to the contrary.  His fellow Republican Senators seemed more concerned about scoring political points by attaching the Burr Bill Iranian sanctions to S. 1982.

If you have the stomach for reading what is actually spoken in the Senate in the Congressional Record, you will notice that the Senators present during the debate over the Tabling of S. 1982 talked about just about anything but the business before them.  Topics discussed ranged from Texas Independence Day to bulk data collection by the U.S government to IRS intrusion into poetical organizations to a call for finding out what happened at Benghazi by Senator Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina).  It's always reassuring to see that Senators can stay on topic when discussing an issue as important as the welfare of millions of American veterans.

It will be interesting to see if there is any veteran backlash over the defeat of S. 1982.  Unfortunately, the current highly partisan atmosphere in Washington has resulted in a totally ineffective Congress, something that Americans are growing increasingly accustomed to.