Better Treatment of our Troops

America treats it soldiers like crap. They risk their lives so we can eat as much as we want, criticize our government as much as we want and live as free as we do. In return, we offer very little. Fighting a war is, as you can imagine, very stressful. Thousands of soldiers are currently struggling with PTSD. It is only 15 percent of time deployers who come back with PTSD. The number almost doubles among soldiers who have deployed multiple times. About 25 percent of soldiers who have deployed more than once are struggling with PTSD. There are many more that have this disease, but they have not yet been diagnosed because the military makes it extremely hard for a soldier to be diagnosed with PTSD and thus receive treatment for it. If a soldier has any preexisting mental condition before their deployment and they develop PTSD while serving overseas, they cannot be diagnosed with PTSD. Instead, the military blames it on their preexisting condition. PTSD is a serious disorder that causes soldiers to have flashbacks, violent outbreaks, and other psychotic behaviors. Since it is hard for a soldier to be diagnosed with PTSD, many of them are redeployed. It seems dangerous to allow them to return to combat. Instead, I think the military should focus more on helping their soldiers transition back into civilian life rather than deploying soldiers who are not capable of fighting back into the war. It is more important to focus on providing out soldiers with the services they need instead of trying to deploy as many men and women as they can. The statistic that 1 in 4 homeless people are veterans is scary. People who are willing to be killed in the name of our country should not be left out after their service to this country. The government needs to help provide our soldiers with homes so they too can live normal lives after the services to our country. The suicide rate among active duty men and women is steadily increasing over each year. In 2008 it was 301 active duty members. An increase of 50 from the year before. My point is, the government needs to do more to provide for our soldiers.