Two Victims of
US War on Iraq

Yesterday I was looking at the Marquette Tribune to see if my letter to the editor: Marquette is The Only One, Jesuit University with three military bases on campus, was published yet. In the process I discovered the sad news of a Marquette graduate who had served in Iraq had committed suicide. I checked stories about him; he had been an ROTC student at another college, joined the military and transferred to MU, called up, served in Iraq, finished school at MU and now was a graduate student at Northwestern. His father said there was “some evidence” that his son may have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD), a mental illness commonly suffered from those in war or who experience violence.

Today my letter to the editor to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on a response to the Acting County Executive’s plan for the county mental health system was published. I had two cautions in it. The second one asked the question why we do not treat mental illnesses the same as other illnesses? If a student in a community college disrupts classes by bleeding would the school kick him out? More likely the school would seek health services for the student.

The facts are that persons with mental illnesses are less likely to commit violence on others than the rest of the population. The facts are the people with mental illnesses are more likely to be a victim of violent crime than the rest of the population.

We do not know the exact cause of cancer is, but we know that certain foods and smoking can cause cancer. We do not know the exact cause of mental illnesses, (or some would call a brain disease, but we do know that violence, teaching how to ‘kill or be killed’, and war can cause mental illnesses.

In an article in last week’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the new and advanced drones being supplied to the military for war, one of the manufactures has this quote at the end of the article about one of the new drones: “The X-478 represents game-changing technology that will allow American forces to project combat power from longer distances without putting humans in harm’s way.”

Who is crazy and more dangerous: I, a person with a mental illness or the executive who made this statement?

Violence on the streets, teaching ‘reflexive killing’ at Marquette, the endless wars in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are enough to drive us to despair and death or to hope and life.

Choose life and stop violence,wars and the discrimination to persons with mental illnesses.

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