The solution in this case didn't amount to a
hill of beans.
"something of trifling value; virtually nothing at all"
Why? Because Congress just kept repeating the same steps to appear to be doing "something" to address military suicides but much like beans being good for you, they come with a nasty thing that proves hard to digest as the odor just lingers in the air.
It is almost as if they just figured "hey we got a problem so we'll just renuzit" and call it something else and then no one will notice what we left behind.
Not the first time they did this.
Congress heard about "
Wounded Warriors Treated as 'Slackers' at Hood, Bliss and Brooke"
"Col. Chris Toner, head of the Army Transition Command, acknowledged that there had been a pattern of "disrespect, harassment and belittlement of soldiers" at Warrior Transition Units (WTUs) at Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas from 2009-2013."
But why remember all that? Why bother to think about how long it had been going on when we all had the nice little feel good diversion like the non-existent battle to get the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Bill passed by Congress? It all starts somewhere before it comes home.
Original diversion, take your eye off the fact that they had pre-deployment psychological screenings. In other words, they were not suicidal before they were sent into combat. After that it is anyone's guess considering the Vice Joint Chiefs of Staff admitted they were not doing post-deployment screenings like they were supposed to.
Not so afraid to go into combat but afraid to admit they had problems because of it, yet hey, why not let Congress pass yet another bill on removing the stigma only to be followed up by reports like what was happening in Warrior Transition Units.
“Injured Heroes, Broken Promises,” a joint investigative project between The Dallas Morning News and NBC5 (KXAS-TV), examines allegations of harassment and mistreatment in the U.S.’ Warrior Transition Units, which were created to serve soldiers with physical and psychological wounds. Reporters David Tarrant, Scott Friedman and Eva Parks based their findings on dozens of interviews with soldiers, Army officials and medical experts, and hundreds of pages of military documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Why bother to actually listen to Generals saying stupid things proving all the talk we heard about doing all they could to remove the stigma and then jamming down their throats statements like this.
"Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations."
That quote came from
General Raymond Odierno in 2013.
Here's another one.
"Wednesday, we lost a Fort Bliss Soldier to an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. I heard the tragic news as I walked out of a memorial service for another one of our Soldiers who decided to kill himself at home on Christmas Day so that his family would find him. Christmas will never be the same for his two young daughters he left behind," Pittard wrote at the time.
He continued, "I have now come to the conclusion that suicide is an absolutely selfish act. Soldiers who commit suicide leave their families, their buddies and their units to literally clean up their mess. There is nothing noble about suicide."
Later in the post Pittard wrote "I am personally fed up with Soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess. Be an adult, act like an adult, and deal with your real-life problems like the rest of us."
That quote came from
Major General Dana Pittard of Fort Bliss
Maybe President Obama liked that message since later that same year in August, this happened.
"Major General Dana Pittard expects the President will discuss the health of the military and Fort Bliss' low suicide rate, as well as government budget cuts, also known as sequestration."
2012 was the highest suicide rate for members of the military but looks like no one is counting or remembering other than families and friends.
But hey, why not just do another bill and call it something else? After all, no one will notice what they already did and then blamed on someone else pretending they didn't just feed the hill of beans.
