“ … let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan …” (Abraham Lincoln - 2nd Inaugural Address | March 4, 1865)
The troops stationed in Iraq are finally all coming home. After nine years of selfless service our brave men and women will return to their home soil and their homes. Yesterday, amidst the military fanfare, President Obama thanked the troops at Fort Bragg and reminded them of the virtues of American power - that they went there to do a job, bring liberty to its population and when the job was done, returned the country to its people. The war, by its classic definition is now over. The time to mend and heal the many things ravaged on a battlefield will thus begin. Unfortunately, we find that many of our servicemen and women who come back from foreign wars return with the worst of their experiences cocooned in some portion of their minds sitting in wait, in dangerous hibernation.
On an average day, eighteen veterans of our nation's armed forces take their own lives. Of those, roughly one quarter are enrolled with the Department of Veterans Affairs ("VA") health care system. (Veterans For Common Sense v. Shinseki - Court of Appeals, 9th District 2011)
Extrapolating upon those numbers, in a span of 9 years there will have been 59,130 deaths caused by suicide, not to mention other deaths by complications due to injuries incurred while in service.
In their ruling the Veterans court defers to the political branches to pursue much needed solutions to assist those who return from foreign conflicts. They wrote:
We willingly acknowledge that, in theory, the political branches of our government are better positioned than are the courts to design the procedures necessary to save veterans' lives and to fulfill our country's obligation to care for those who have protected us.
We at ROBERTS|JUSTICE are grateful to our brave men and women who’ve given so much for this nation and whom afford us our liberties. We will endeavor to bring about the much needed changes and find the best ways, to the extent we can, to ameliorate future conflicts. We are indebted to you all.
