Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 4/30/12: The Alarming Suicide Epidemic in the Military

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The Costs of War
by Ron Paul

This month Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced the addition of some 1,900 mental health nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers to its existing workforce of 20,590 mental health staff in attempt to get a handle on the epidemic of suicides among combat veterans. Unfortunately, when presidents misuse our military on an unprecedented scale -- and Congress lets them get away with it -- the resulting stress causes military suicides to increase dramatically, both among active duty and retired service members. In fact, military deaths from suicide far outnumber combat deaths. According to an article in the Air Force Times this month, suicides among airmen are up 40 percent over last year.

Considering the multiple deployments service members are forced to endure as the war in Afghanistan stretches into its second decade, these figures are sadly unsurprising.

Ironically, the same VA Secretary Eric Shinseki was forced to retire from the Army by President Bush for daring to suggest that an invasion and occupation of Iraq would not be the cakewalk that neoconservatives promised. Then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who is not a military veteran, claimed that General Shinseki was "wildly off the mark" for suggesting that several hundred thousand soldiers would be required to secure post-invasion Iraq. Now we see who was right on the costs of war.

In addition to the hidden human costs of our seemingly endless wars are the economic costs. In 2008, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict." Stiglitz illustrates that taking into account the total costs of the war, including replacing military equipment and caring for thousands of wounded veterans for the rest of their lives, the Iraq war will cost us orders of magnitude greater than the 50 billion dollars promised by the White House before the invasion. Add all the costs of Afghanistan into the mix, wrote Stiglitz, and the bill tops $7 trillion.

Is it any wonder why our infrastructure at home crumbles, healthcare is more expensive and harder to come by, and unemployment together with inflation continue their steady rise? Imagine the productive power of that seven trillion dollars in our private sector. What could it have done were it in private hands; what may have been discovered, what diseases might have been cured, what might have been built, how many productive jobs created?

With the bills coming due for our decade of reckless military action, the cuts rarely come from the well-connected military industrial complex with their lobbyists and powerful political allies. In President Obama's 2013 budget, troop strength is to be cut significantly while enormously expensive and largely superfluous weapons systems emerge essentially unscathed. As defense analyst Winslow Wheeler wrote this month, costs of the "next generation" fighter, the F-35, will increase by another $289 million. This despite the fact that the fighter is badly designed and already outdated, a "virtual flying piano" writes Wheeler.

The military contractors building monstrosities like the F-35 are politically connected and thus protected. Unfortunately, returning military veterans are less so. In the same 2013 budget, the White House proposes to increase medical and pharmaceutical costs paid by veterans while reducing their cost of living increases. And how many years of increasingly alarming mental illness and suicide statistics has it taken for the modest increase in resources to be made available?

Those who predicted the real costs of our decade of global military conquest were ridiculed, scoffed at, and fired. History has now shown us that much of what they warned was correct. America is clearly less secure after a decade of unnecessary wars. It is more vulnerable and closer to economic collapse. Its military is nearly broken from years of abuse. Will we come back to our senses?

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  News & Politics

[mattprd7]

You can hear the sadness and sincerity in his voice...this has gone on long enough...

[amcent2]

how many join military because there are no other opportunities? this gov't sucks.

[javii213lopezz]

Ron Paul keeps it too real, I guess he needs to bullshit some, nd talk dumber so the ppl can understand him better nd he'll get votes cuz idk how Romney voters nd Obama fanatics dont see right thru theyre lies. . I bet people dnt even pay close attention to da debates. Dey just vote fer whoever the media favors.... FUCKIN IRAN HATES AMERICA BCUZ MOST AMERICANS ARE BLIND IDIOTS WHO WONT STAND UP TO THEIR RIGHTS AS HUMAN BEINGS. COME ON!these other countries fin get fed up on how.USA'S runnin shit

[amcent2]

interesting comment. it's really a bad situation, because the military is using up a good portion of young American adults and they don't always come back in one piece, not to mention the ones who get messed up in the head.

[amcent2]

Ron Paul isn't going anywhere at the moment, if for no other reason than to preserve the political career of Senator Rand Paul. Also Ron Paul does not criticize Mitt too much. There may be something of an alliance there. RP sure didn't hold back any criticism of the other gop candidates.

[Zyworski]

Dennis was a young man quit a few years ago, and has grown into a person of rock solid principles. The thing that will cinch Dennis as an honest man is if he doesn't go into lobbying for his post political career. Ron Paul can win if he will divorce himself of the Republican Party, and give himself some badly needed centrist credentials like Dennis Kucinich. You go and vote for Ron Paul, because you are voting your heart. It is time we all vote our conscience.

[amcent2]

I'm from Cleveland. I remember when Kucinich was the "boy mayor". I think it's time for Dennis to get a job in the private sector. Ron Paul is my first choice for president - won't happen this time, but maybe Rand Paul on 3rd party ticket 2016?

[Zyworski]

If you want me to get up and defend President Obama that is a pretty tough row to hoe. I can see that you are center right, and I am center left, so the only thing we are going to agree upon is we're not so happy about our choices this election.

What do you think about that Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich idea? Whenever asked about it, they both prevaricate, and compliment each other, but never put the idea in a coffin.

[amcent2]

ex chicago mayor blagovich put it best when describing 0 - it's all take and no give. Mitt is far from ideal but 0 is incorrigible.

[Zyworski]

Mitt's unwillingness to be a man and stand behind his own policies in order to pander to the extreme right shows a lack of leadership. There is also the Mormon factor which is creepy to a lot of people, me included. If Obama looks like he has it in the bag, I intend to write in a candidate to help that 3rd party get started.

I will vote for Ron Paul is he runs as an independent and can get Dennis Kucinich as his running mate. The 2 patron saints of lost causes, I love it.

[amcent2]

every "special interest" group in America has been turned against each other. whether it's women, blacks, latins, asians, gays, disableds, etc - every group has made a deal with the devil (big gov't). anyone who did 5 minutes of research before the '08 election should have known who and what 0 is - I certainly did and voted for mccain but only as a vote against 0. Ron Paul is the best candidate but it's going to be mitt and hopefully a strong 3rd party by '16. d's and r's = failure.

[Zyworski]

Women have to join the military to have any career opportunities since the colleges are so expensive and demand far outpaces supply. Meanwhile the incidence of rape in the military is a national disgrace, and we wonder why women have become so mercenary. The whole military industrial complex is damaging the national psyche of our country. I want change so bad I can taste it, but Obama has turned out more like Republican lite than a what we really want.