UPDATE 11/29/08: A reader has kindly brought to my attention an error in my original introduction: The SFGate link provided here does not reflect the statistic, “18 veterans per day commit suicide.” I apparently linked to the wrong article, so I extend my apologies for less than exacting journalism–please allow me to direct readers to the horse’s mouth. Please refer to this story regarding an ongoing investigation by CBS News, wherein Dr. Ira Katz, the VA’s head of Mental Health is quoted:

Last November when CBS News exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report.
“Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate,”
he said last November.
But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days
later.
He wrote: there “are about 18 suicides per day among America’s 25 million
veterans.”
That works out to about 6,570 per year, which Katz admits in the same e-mail,
“is supported by the CBS numbers.”

That full CBSNews story, with many accompanying links, can be found here: “VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails Show”

MUCH more update about this important issue every American must address, follows at the Read More link below.