NEWSBYWILL FISCHER

The Department of Veterans Affairs recently released a report raising concerns over the suicide rates among veterans between the ages of 18–29, which went up 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, climbed in 2008 and continued to surge into record-setting, disastrous levels in 2009.

There’s no question that the experience and incommunicable horrors of war, as well as the ill-treatment by our VA for suffering veterans plays a role in these figures –- I know first hand that they do. But is the insufficient funding for veterans’ health benefits the only cure for this dilemma?

According to figures from the U.S. Department of Labor, the unemployment rate among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans stands at 11.3%, significantly higher than the nation’s overall rate of 9.8%. Broken down, that’s roughly 185,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans out of work. It should also be noted that many of these unemployed veterans are National Guard or Reserve troops who were called out of factories, plants, and service industries to go fight wars just as so many others have before them. The problem now -- the problem facing our newest generation of veterans -- is that when they set down their tools to pick up arms, upon return, they are usually met not with their tools to pick back up, but rather a pink slip to send them home.