Why are our Veterans Dying?

Veterans day is a day to honor all military vets. It marks the formal end of World War I, which occurred on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

The “War to End all Wars”… didn’t.

But worse, more soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guard personnel are dying by their own hand today than by enemy fire.

An exposé published in Freedom Magazine reported, “on average, 22 military veterans and active-duty personnel make the decision to kill themselves—an astounding military suicide every 65 minutes. More soldiers on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan have committed suicide than died in battle. Recent government research has also found that female military vets decide to end their lives at six times the rate of other women. For women 18-29, it’s almost 12 times the rate of nonveterans.”

The article goes on to point out the correlation between this devastating statistic and the psychotropic drugging of our military.

“The culprit goes by the catch-all term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, a convenient label that can efficiently house a laundry list of conditions generated in this case by combat stress. It might be chronic fatigue, depression, night terrors, or lingering pain. Overwhelmingly, the treatment offered soldiers and veterans centers on prescription drugs: antipsychotics, antidepressants, sedatives, stimulants and mood stabilizers.

“Many have come to believe that this drug cocktail “cure” does significantly more damage than the condition it’s designed to treat, that it’s the narcotics themselves that have triggered an epidemic spike in veteran suicides.”

“Military prescriptions for psychotropic drugs have soared 475 percent since 2002 and by 2014 stood at an astonishing 18 million annually. During that same period, the Department of Veterans Affairs opiate painkiller rate has climbed 270 percent.”

“We have never drugged our troops to this extent, and the current increase in suicides is not a coincidence,” says Bart Billings, retired colonel and former military psychologist. The numbers indicate that top brass appear more concerned with getting soldiers back into service as quickly as possible through drugs that merely treat their symptoms temporarily, rather than addressing root causes of mental distress.

“Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has investigated how psychiatrists are using the so-called War on Terror to broaden their niche within the military to push mind-altering drugs on not only the fighting forces, but on veterans and the public at large. Within days of the attacks, psychiatrists were predicting that as many as 30 percent of people affected by the attacks would develop PTSD. In October 2001 alone, Pfizer pumped $5.6 million into advertising Zoloft as a treatment for PTSD.

“From our perspective, it was a human rights abuse,” CCHR President Jan Eastgate said in a recent interview. “The last thing people need to be [in the wake of such tragedy] is numbed out with mind-altering psychiatric drugs.”

“In an effort to raise awareness about these issues, CCHR’s 2013 documentary, The Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert Agenda, was shown to congressional staff in the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee room on Capitol Hill in May 2014. It has been shown to veteran groups in D.C. and to National Guardsmen in California, aired on six U.S. TV stations and mailed to thousands of military personnel.

“CCHR submitted a white paper on military drugging to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “A Review of How Prescribed Psychiatric Medications Could be Driving Members of the Armed Forces and Vets to Acts of Violence & Suicide” became part of the Congressional Record and was posted on the U.S. Veterans’ Affairs Committee website.

“CCHR also collected 15,000 signatures encouraging Congress to investigate connections between psychotropic drugs, active-duty and veteran suicides, and violence. In May last year, hundreds protested in New York against the American Psychiatric Association for turning a blind eye to psychotropic drugs and hundreds of sudden deaths of soldiers and vets.

“The Citizens Commission on Human Rights and the Church of Scientology have for many years lobbied for veterans rights, informed consent, and treatment alternatives to psychiatric medication of America’s military personnel. In keeping with its mandate to restore human rights and dignity to the field of mental health, CCHR has advocated reforms in the military’s mental health practices so personnel and veterans are informed and protected from abuse.”