RE: Veterans to March at LP Convention
To add to this, here is what I put together a few months ago when we first announced this March, I have included the body of the press release plus the sources -
Libertarians are the only political force bringing attention to the suicide epidemic in our military. As of September 2017, the number of active duty military was 1.3 million according to Governing.com. Add to that 800,000 reserve forces. President Obama, in 2016, just before leaving office, signed the $618.7 billion, 2017 National Defence Authorization Act. This bill which passed with overwhelming support from congress added 16,000 more soldiers to the Army alone. This was exactly what war hawks like Lindsey Graham had asked to be sent to Syria in 2015. “The only way you can destroy the caliphate is with a ground component.” said Graham. With this obvious build up towards yet another war in the middle east with no clear goals, one statistic continues to be ignored by everyone in Washington D.C. from Congress to Donald Trump. Twenty veterans commit suicide every day in this country.
In the global “War on Terror,” according to the L.A. Times, there have been 6,915 combat casualties. When you do the math, there have been 109,500 Military suicides in the past 15 years. This is almost ten times as many soldiers who have taken their own lives than have died in combat. There have been more of our soldiers who commited suicide in the past 15 years than in all of our conflicts combined from Korea to present day.
The government is so unconcerned about this horrific statistic that they seldom mention it. In Donald Trump’s most recent State of the Union speech, he mentioned several issues that plague our country. He praised our military. Yet, could not take the time to even mention this tragedy. This startling number is evidence of the negligence of government. They are willing to send these men and women to die in senseless war, yet completely unwilling to face this result of their lust for Empire.
Because the people who caused this are unwilling to even discuss it, we must take action to bring awareness ourselves. Recently, Adam Kokesh announced a “March of the Dead Veterans,” for July 1st, 2018. This all veteran march will begin at the New Orleans VA hospital and make a stop at the Libertarian National Convention for a flag folding ceremony.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2016/12/26/new-in-2017-16000-more-soldiers-for-the-army/
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-memorial-day-20170529-htmlstory.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/29/john-mccain-lindsey-graham-20000-troops-syria-iraq