Veterans Put On Skull Masks, March to Expose Epidemic of VA Abuse and Veteran Suicide

 New Orleans, LA — Veterans from all over the United States gathered  in front of the New Orleans VA hospital Sunday morning for a march to  raise awareness for the epidemic of veteran suicides currently gripping  the nation. It is no secret that the leading cause of death among active duty  troops deployed to the Middle East is not combat or accidents, or IEDs —  it’s themselves. The Pentagon’s own statistics show that this is a  crisis but it is being ignored. In 2016, the Pentagon examined the numbers, noting that a total of 55 US troops, in both hostile and non-hostile situations, lost their lives in foreign occupations. 

The number of soldiers who killed themselves was nearly 5 times that amount. Not only are active duty soldiers tragically ending their own lives  at an increasing rate, but once they finish their service, these numbers  skyrocket. While the suicide rate for active duty members is certainly  shocking, veterans kill themselves at a rate nearly 200 percent more. The most recent data shows that a veteran kills himself or herself in  the United States about every 65 minutes. 

That is 8,000 veterans a  year. If we look at attempted suicides, that number skyrockets once more to  19,000 attempts, of which 8,000 result in ending their own lives. One of these attempted suicides was Air Force veteran John Michael  Watts, 58, who approached the Georgia Capitol in downtown Atlanta around  10:45 a.m. on Tuesday and within minutes, he was engulfed in flames  that burned 90 percent of his body. Watts set himself on fire in an attempted suicide to raise awareness to the problems within the VA. “These findings are deeply concerning, which is why I made suicide  prevention my top clinical priority,” said VA Secretary Dr. David J.  Shulkin last year. 

“I am committed to reducing Veteran suicides through  support and education. We know that of the 20 suicides a day that we  reported last year, 14 are not under VA care. This is a national public  health issue that requires a concerted, national approach.” Indeed, this problem is concerning, but the VA is not posing any real  solutions, which is why this group of veterans came together on Sunday,  put on skull masks to humanize the dead, and marched to the 2018  Libertarian Convention. The “March of the Dead” was an event organized by activist and veteran of the USMC, Adam Kokesh. “I’ve had a few friends and a number of vets I’ve known commit  suicide.

 I’ve dealt with PTSD myself and turned down a big bag of  pharmaceuticals from the VA,” Kokesh told News2Share as the reason for  organizing the march.

 “But for me, the motivation is all the guys I see  struggling who I know would be better off with freedom to seek treatment  without the drug war in the way. Twenty veterans will commit suicide  today. How many wouldn’t with proper treatment?” The march began at the VA hospital where, ironically, police quickly  blocked all the veterans from being on the property. 

The veterans then  formed up and marched to the libertarian convention—not as a protest—but  to show support for the only party willing to apply solutions that will  address this problem. Upon reaching the convention, the group of veterans, of which TFTP’s  Matt Agorist was a part of, presented a folded flag to the chairman of  the Libertarian National Committee, Nicholas Sarwark. The flag was  signed by all the veterans who participated in the protest “As many of you in this room know, but not a lot of people in the  country know,” Sarwark said. 

“The Libertarian party is the only party  committed to the solutions that will get to the root causes of the  veteran suicide in this country: namely increased opioid addiction, not  sending our men and women off to fight in other countries’ civil wars,  and generally promoting a policy of peace.” 

Because Agorist participated in the March as a veteran, TFTP’s  footage of the march is limited, however, Ford Fischer with News2Share  made the powerful video below summing up the march.  

War is the plight of mankind. It is perpetually waged by cowards too  afraid to send themselves or their own children into harm’s way, but who  do not hesitate to send the poor or ‘patriotic.’ When the state is done with its pawns of empire, it disposes of them  like spent military gear. 

They then become unable to get the proper care  they need for illness and injury related to their service. If they try  to self-medicate to cope with the subsequent PTSD from being forced to  brutally occupy a foreign country, these veterans have their children  taken, face life in prison, or worse. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates  that nearly 50,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Another  140,000 are currently in jail, many of them for victimless crimes like  drug possession for trying to treat their illness without  pharmaceuticals. 

As if the numbers aren’t bad enough, veterans are often the target of  unjust attention from law enforcement. On multiple occasions, the Department of Homeland Security has referred to veterans as potential terrorists and noted that they pose a threat to national security. The Free Thought Project has reported on case after case of veterans returning home only to be beaten and locked up for speaking out, or killed by police during a PTSD-triggered episode. Lip service of ‘supporting the troops’ is proving to be the worst possible thing for them. 

If you really want to “support the troops” you’ll stop supporting  wars of aggression in distant lands in which Americans are forced to  kill people who pose no threat to the US. If you really “support the troops” you’ll stop blindly standing up  for your government whose proven track record shows that they do everything but support the troops. It’s time for Congress to act on behalf of all veterans and Americans  to legalize marijuana across the nation, end foreign wars of  aggression, and reboot the VA.

 Too many people are in jail and are being  charged with felonies for a plant—one that has demonstrated the power  to treat the pain and depression of war, addictions to the opioids  dished out by the VA, and most importantly—to prevent suicide.