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Wildfires are forcing the evacuation of Malibu.
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source: Le Figaro
auteur: Renaud Toffier
traduction: doxa-louise
Behind the killings in California, the unease of America’s veterans
On November 12 the United States will be honoring their veterans,
of whom some 7 000 end their own lives every year. Among them,
Ian David Long, an ex-Marine and perpetrator of the killings in Thousand
Oaks, in California, resulting in 12 victims.
Wednesday night, 60 kilometers from Los Angeles. A man in a dark coat goes up
to a crowded bar, empties his Glock on the crowd, then turns the arm on himself. 12
dead and more than 20 wounded. Quickly identified, the man behind the mass
killing of Thousand Oaks, the 307th of the year, is Ian David Long, formerly with
the Marine Corps. 28 years old, he has just added his name to the list of 7 000 veterans
who kill themselves every year, in effect around 20 per day. A troubling phenomena
which the American Administration is having trouble dealing with.
‘The number of suicides has exploded since 2008, to the point where the army,
normally silent on such issues, has decided to go public with this situation, points
out Romain Huret, researcher with EHESS (École des Hautes Études en Sciences
Sociales) and specialist on the history of the United States in the XXth century. T
his also challenges public opinion with respect to the level of violence, badly known,
of the wars in Afghanistan and Irak, and the hard defensive battles faced by combatants’.
In 2016, Veterans’ Affairs published a fictionalized view of these suicides, presented
as ‘the most complete in history’, with segments by age, sex, social context or again
educational attainment. A link stands out with the largest public health issue in the
country: the opioids crisis, highly addictive pain medication which killed more than
60 000 Americans in 2016 alone. Veterans, many of whom suffer chronic pain, consume
a lot of these thanks to prescriptions from medical centers for their use. Concerned
about the extent of the phenomenon, Veterans’ Affairs cut back on opioid prescriptions
by 41% between 2012 and 2017. Between 2004 and 2012, these had gone up by 270%.
Veterans, ‘a pampered electorate’ at the hands of Donald Trump
If the department admits to ‘working without respite to find ways of battling suicide’,
it also pulls out all stops to get the means it needs to this end. throughout his presidential
campaign, donald Trump made much of his concern for the 21 million veterans in the
country. ‘It is an electorate he has particularly pampered. He increased military spending,
reminds us Romain Huret, and a part of this now goes to treating post-traumatic problems
directly by units in the field’.
Both treatment and follow-up are necessary. Last April, police alerted by the neighbors
had gone to the home of Ian David Long because he was acting ‘in an irrational manner’.
‘He was punching the walls, said a neighbor to Reuters. Police couldn’t get him to leave
the house, this lasted four or five hours’. the police guess they are dealing with post-traumatic
stress disorder. After consultation, mental health professionals did not judge necessary to
commit the Afghanistan-experienced gunner.
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