Veterans’ Office Covering Up Soldier Suicides: US Lawmakers
WASHINGTON - US lawmakers have accused the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of being out of control and of covering up the high suicide rate among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.
“The VA healthcare system has been pushed to the edge in dealing with the mental health care needs of our veterans,” Bob Filner, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee of Veterans’ Affairs, told a packed congressional hearing about the issue of suicides among veterans.
The hearing came five months after a first round of testimonials on the same topic, and weeks after a series of internal VA emails about suicides among veterans were brought to light by a documentary on US network television.
In one of the emails, sent in February, Dr Ira Katz, deputy chief patient care services officer for mental health at the VA, wrote: “Shh! Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see.”
He added: “Is this something we should address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?”
The figure was at odds with the 144 known suicides among veterans from 2001, when the US launched its war against terror by bombing Afghanistan, through the end of 2005, which Katz had cited in his December testimony, Filner said.
“The emails … seem to indicate they were trying to manipulate the data instead of sharing the data,” Filner told AFP. “If we hadn’t called this hearing, we probably still wouldn’t know the figures.”
“What we see is a pattern that reveals a culture of bureaucracy,” he told the VA officials at the hearing.
“The pattern is deny, deny, deny and when that fails, it’s cover up, cover up, cover up — there is clear evidence of a bureaucratic cover-up here.”
In his testimony for the VA, Katz apologized for the “poor tone” of the email, sent in February.
But neither he nor Secretary of Veteran Affairs James Peake, who also addressed the hearing, admitted any wrongdoing.
“VA has long subjected its own data, that of the Department of Defense, and data from nationally accepted statistical sources to careful and painstaking analysis to obtain the truth about veterans’ suicide,” Peake told the panel.
“On February 13, 2008, an internal email … suggested 1,000 veterans a month under VA care were being reported as attempting suicide.”
Identifying him only by title, Peake told the hearing that Katz said in the email that “he was concerned about disclosing the information” and the data was not shared with outside sources “because of his concerns.”
Filner accused the VA of being unhelpful, opaque and out of control.
“If you have a document showing 1,000 suicide attempts per month, we have some real difficult issues. But you never passed us that information and you never asked us to help you, saying you had it under control,” he said.
“You don’t have it under control.”
“The data reflects a symptom of a major problem with our veterans. Suicide is the ultimate, tragic symptom of the problem, but PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), depression, homelessness, marital difficulties, domestic violence are also symptoms,” he said.
A study published last month by the Rand Corporation, which Filner cited during the hearing, showed that of the 1.6 million US soldiers who have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 18-20 percent — or around 300,000 — show PTSD, depression or both.
A separate study issued last month by the American Psychiatric Association showed that a mere 10 percent of veterans have sought treatment for mental health concerns.
Peake told reporters he would not seek the resignations of Katz or another VA doctor, Michael Kussman, who had also played down the mental health crisis among US veterans.
He described both as “outstanding public servants with long histories of service to veterans.”
© 2008 Agence France Presse
The only way to prevent PTSD in our vets is to stop sending them to political wars. Only the politicians win in political wars, or at least they never lose. Political wars don’t allow the vet to come home and claim his rightful glory. The whole reintegration process back into society is screwed up. It’s screwed up because society doesn’t know what their vets have experienced. America hasn’t gone to war with the troops since WW2. Ever since then our wars have been political and therefore the politicians tried to fight the war without us even knowing. In WW2 people rationed food, bought war bonds, worked in shipyards, pulled their drapes at night, watched weekly newsreels of the war at theaters, volunteered or got drafted. The country followed their troops to and home from war, and welcomed them as heroes. Since WW2 we have never gone to war with our soldiers. We send them and then we watch on TV. When they come home we ignore or at best tolerate them. We call them losers because they couldn’t win a political war. And now we wonder why so many vets are having mental problems. It’s hard to come home to a country that doesn’t even know you, or what you did.
Hoa binh
“There has never been a good war or a bad peace.” Benjamin Franklin
the gi’s are killing their selves because when they come home they can see they are not only ignorant and low-class, but they see they are now, also, murderous thugs. being ignorant and low-class is correctable but the gi will never be able to change “murderous thug”. nope, once you turn another human into a bloody mess because someone told you to do it, the “murderous thug” will stick to the soul. some murderous thugs can live with the tag, but many others can’t. it is truly sad that amerika treats its lower and middle class children like the thugs that they have become.
“Hero” is the cheapest word in the dictionary. I love when Steven Colbert calls his audience “heroes”.
Soldiers who volunteered after 911 are used up and then thrown away, especially when they realize what they have been used for, and become distraught.
911 rescuers who jumped in with no thought for themselves have to fight for recognition of their breathing diseases.
People are thinking two and three times before volunteering because they can see how the burdens of our imperialist adventures are not shared. The direct burdens are on a few young people. The indirect financial and societal fallout is on people of modest means.
If we do not stop world domination schemes, the latest being to attack Iran, we will have a never-ending stream of damaged young people needing treatment.
“People are thinking two and three times before volunteering”.
Maybe they should think it over twenty or thirty times and maybe they will figure it out that they are being used. I always thought and still do that American jingoism trumps brains.
“If we do not stop world domination schemes, the latest being to attack Iran, we will have a never-ending stream of damaged young people needing treatment.”
jclietelle : You have the cart before the horse : no new recruits and no sane soldiers left to fight would stop world-domination schemes.
There’s an old cooking expression : you have to break an egg to make an omelette . Likewise you’ll have to break the military BEFORE America stops world-domination schemes .
one saturday after the weekly peace vigil at our local military base, as i was walking back to my car, i had to pass the small contingent of counter-demonstrators. one loud, flag-draped guy in cammies was yelling “support the troops, support the troops” at the traffic whizzing by. as i approached him, i said “tell it to the VA.”
his stunned silence was the best reply i could have asked for.
This is no longer a legal government, only a de facto government. Anybody who volunteers to do anything for these robber barons has been hoodwinked. You might as well volunteer your services for Exxon/Mobile.
I’m starting to wonder whether my vote is not a tacit acknowledgment that this gang of hoodlums has a right to be in power.
A line from the movie ZARDOZ applies here: “Take your pick: apathetic or renegade.” I don’t believe that anybody in this country meets the strict definition of the word “sane”.
Many of these soldiers joined the military because it was the best job opportunity they could find or in some cases the only job opportunity available. If you were in that situation and came to the realization that this job is IT and there is no other direction to go, you would probably commit suicide.
It is shameless the way Bush has exploited this country and people in it! But, it’s even more shameless how he has exploited and used up the military for his own selfish agenda! Some of them have had 6 to 7 tours of duty in this god forsaken hell hole. I would desert before they would send me that many times. And they are talking about another war with Iran?????? We wonder why vets are committing suicide right and left???? All they have to look forward to is more war under these fascist’s! I think it’s time to start making those who start a war to be the first to enlist and be on the front line! Then we might see how many are hot to trot over starting another war????
Well, actually we have had a volunteer military for over 60 years. The Air force, Navy and Marine corps were always volunteers and Army officers are volunteers and the bulk of our army has always been volunteer____ (except during the Vietnam conflict)____ when we had an “Army draft” and until after the First Gulf War suicide rates were NOT above average. ___ What happened?
“PTSD” was first named the “Gulf War syndrome”. It was blamed upon soldiers inhaling smoke and chemical fumes from hundreds the oil well fires.
Of course the VA strongly suspected the real reason, but the real reason is so damned__ criminal ___ that no one dared speak of it publically and that denial and coverup continues to this day.
When any attempt to bring up the honest reason, even in sites like this one, most don’t wish to hear it and will brush it off. But if any wish to know the real reason for PTSD and for suicides and why now over 400,000 vets are permanently disabled with serious medical problems, read this link. And if you don’t wish to believe it,___ deny it like our government and VA does.
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du_blowinginthewind.htm
The suicide rates of vets began to soar before the Second Gulf War began. That article I posted was published several years ago and the permanently disabled and early deaths of vets have almost doubled since it was written.
The U.S. Congress has demonstrated itself to be totally impotent when it comes to governing and “Preserving and Defending The United States Constitution”…….
Although never having declared “War”, the United States Congresses have allowed Cheney/Bush to wage a “War”. The effects have been to contract the “War” out to “Private Contractors” better known as “Mercenary Armies”…..With over 170 Mercenary Companies, the DOD is able to “Wage War” against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The problem is that Cheney/Bush keep changing the names of the enemies and the reasons that they might be the enemy.
So, our soldiers go around killing innocent, unarmed citizens, and dropping weapons by corpses to prove that they were being fired upon. They have killed children and women and know that is “Murder”. Unfortunately, DOD started calling “Murder” “Collateral Damage” after My Lai. The United States is the “Insurgent”…….The United States is the “Invading Force”…….The United States was the agressor without cause. The Iraqi people have a “Right” to defend themselves against an “Invading Force”….
These returning Vets are suffering a “Quilt” that is beyond belief and the VA schedules their initial visit but does not have enough psychologists to admit the veterans for treatment or schedule their first appointment.
So, you might have thousands of suicides and, as usual Cheney/Bush can deny any responsibility after all “They volunteered.”
How about last month, the New York Times had reported that 123 returning Iragi and Afghan Vets had been involved in the murder of friends and loved ones???? They did not mention “Returning Mercenaries” and the murders that they had probably committed…….
Enough is enough!!!!!
re KEM P 10:32am
you wrote “PTSD” was first named the “Gulf War syndrome”. i think PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) was once called “battle fatigue” (WW2) and previously “shell shock” (WW1). same symptoms, different day. gulf war syndrome is more like agent orange disease (from a previous post-colonial adventure) in that both result from the cavalier attitude our military planners have for the environment as well as for our troops.
andersdl: Good point. People need to make a living. When asked why he robbed banks, the colorful Willie Sutton said, “because that’s wher the money is.” The same could be said about Jesse James, the Younger Brothers, John Dillinger, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and today’s drug dealers as well. We can rationalize why we choose a certain “career” and make justifications for it,
Mark N May: Thank you. A great quote from a real hero!
papercut: I beg to differ. Are you sure it isn’t “conscience” and what they have seen or participated in? Once you pull the trigger, it’s too late to say your sorry. And don’t get me wrong, there are people who thrive on violent behavior but they are a tiny minority in this world.
Most folks on this planet prefer to live and let live, “The Silver Rule” but when they are manipulated by sharper minds, they become henchmen for these unscrupulous characters and carry out nefarious deeds for jingoistic slogans and praise by the ringleaders of crime in political office who keep their own children out of harm’s way.
We need a radical change in government by radical thinkers with radical solutions in peaceful co-existence with our neighbors in the world. You want to reduce military suicides? Stop waging war! It’s the first step in the right direction.
In a context of more or less total insanity it must be a little hard to define mental illness. It is difficult enough here at home to keep our bearings in a story that might have been written by Lewis Carroll or Franz Kafka, but at least we are not roasting in flak jackets or up to our elbows in blood. What must it be like to realize that you have volunteered to live in a nightmare, that you were attracted to it and chose it and contributed to it even while it was having you for lunch? It is too bad that the PTSD people are the ones who are smart enough to see the wrongness of it and human enough to be broken by it. The rest, loyal to their demented brotherhoods and comfortable in an ambience of obscenity and death. will be our next generation of cops and prison guards, unless John McCain can find a way to keep them busy elsewhere.
You think wrong ~HAZMAT~ Indeed SOME World War 1 and 11, Korean conflict and Vietnam vets suffered from shell shock and battle fatigue. SOME.
The “Gulf War Syndrome”, or “PTSD” was drastically different from shell shock, battle fatigue and Agent Orange contamination, the numbers were mind boggling.
You’re hasty brush off reply to what I posted and the issue of radiation poisoning, is precicely why the true reason is not addressed by our government, the VA and press.
Your response is exactly what the VA and our government wishes to happen. Read the link I offered, it takes two minutes. Then if you disagree with that author, state exactly why you disagree and it can be openly and sensibly debated here. Sorry Hazmat, but your reply was based upon ignorance of the truth an dis quite harmful. Although you likely did not realize it or intend it to be. Read the link and let’s debate it if you disagree.
dear KEM,
your voice is loud and clear on the subject of the hell-spawn DU munitions, and i’d be the last to brush it off, as i’ve been harping on this issue since 1991. i simply have too much respect for you, based on many previous posts, to allow you to persist in an error. PTSD (or battle fatigue or shell shock)=mental/behavioral symptoms; gulf war syndrome and agent orange disease (both dismissed at first by the VA as psychosomatic to save $ and evade liability for supplier corporations)=physical symptoms caused by exposure to a smorgasbord of toxins.
friends again?
“The pattern is deny, deny, deny and when that fails, it’s cover up, cover up, cover up — there is clear evidence of a bureaucratic cover-up here.”
There has always been clear evidence but complyant media smooths it over! Keep a TV in every household!
Never thought about us not being friends ~Hazmat~. I have a great deal of respect for you.
I only believe you TOTALLY misunderstand the term “Gulf War Syndrome”, based upon what you posted in your first post here. The reason for that generic medical term “Gulf War Syndrome” was, there were so damn many ground troops who were getting sick or dying after the First Gulf War. Not a few thousand, ___hundreds of thousands. Never in our history has such a thing occurred.
The Gulf War Syndrome or PTSD, is not shell shock, or battle fatigue. It is “radiation poisoning” and never before the First Gulf War were our ground troops exposed to that type of poison in a war and the VA or our government has never stated that truth.
If we go back to the late 50s, several thousand of our troops were exposed to radiation poisoning, when they were forced to sit a couple of miles from an atomic bomb blast in Nevada. What happened to them over time? By a large majority, they had the same symptoms the Gulf War vets are experiencing.
PTSD is “radiation poisoning” whicn often attacks brain cells, just as the article I post states it does and the VA denies it. __They have to, it is the most serious crime ever committed by humanity and on humanity and on the Earth’s enviroment as well.
I wonder how long it will be before they unearth the memo showing the cost savings from non-treatment of suicidal soldiers.
I believe Gulf War Syndrome, (caused by radiation and a host of concoctions they were innoculated with) may be diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for the sake of avoiding the DU issue.
If it’s not suicides, it’s electrocution. I found this shocking (no pun intended) story on MichaelMoore.com:
Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.’s
By James Risen / New York Times
WASHINGTON — In October 2004, the United States Army issued an urgent bulletin to commanders across Iraq, warning them of a deadly new threat to American soldiers. Because of flawed electrical work by contractors, the bulletin stated, soldiers at American bases in Iraq had received severe electrical shocks, and some had even been electrocuted.
The bulletin, with the headline “The Unexpected Killer,” was issued after the horrific deaths of two soldiers who were caught in water — one in a shower, the other in a swimming pool — that was suddenly electrified after poorly grounded wiring short-circuited.
“We’ve had several shocks in showers and near misses here in Baghdad, as well as in other parts of the country,” Frank Trent, an expert with the Army Corps of Engineers, wrote in the bulletin. “As we install temporary and permanent power on our projects, we must ensure that we require contractors to properly ground electrical systems.”
Since that warning, at least two more American soldiers have been electrocuted in similar circumstances. In all, at least a dozen American military personnel have been electrocuted in Iraq, according to the Pentagon and Congressional investigators.
While several deaths have been attributed to inadvertent contact with power lines under battlefield conditions, the Army bulletin said that five deaths over the preceding year had apparently been caused by faulty grounding, and the circumstances of others have not been fully explained by the Army. Many more soldiers have been injured by shocks, Pentagon officials and soldiers say.
The accidental deaths and close calls, which are being investigated by Congress and the Defense Department’s inspector general, raise new questions about the oversight of contractors in the war zone, where unjustified killings by security guards, shoddy reconstruction projects and fraud involving military supplies have spurred previous inquiries.
American electricians who worked for KBR, the Houston-based defense contractor that is responsible for maintaining American bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, said they repeatedly warned company managers and military officials about unsafe electrical work, which was often performed by poorly trained Iraqis and Afghans paid just a few dollars a day.
One electrician warned his KBR bosses in his 2005 letter of resignation that unsafe electrical work was “a disaster waiting to happen.” Another said he witnessed an American soldier in Afghanistan receiving a potentially lethal shock. A third provided e-mail messages and other documents showing that he had complained to KBR and the government that logs were created to make it appear that nonexistent electrical safety systems were properly functioning.
KBR itself told the Pentagon in early 2007 about unsafe electrical wiring at a base near the Baghdad airport, but no repairs were made. Less than a year later, a soldier was electrocuted in a shower there.
“I don’t feel like they did their job,” Carmen Nolasco Duran of La Puente, Calif., said of Pentagon officials. Her brother, Specialist Marcos O. Nolasco, was electrocuted at a base in Baiji in May 2004 while showering. “They hired these contractors and yet they didn’t go and double-check that the work was fine.”
The Defense Contract Management Agency, which is responsible for supervising maintenance work by contractors at American bases in Iraq, defended its performance. In a written statement, the agency said it had no information that staff members “were aware” of the Army alert or “failed to take appropriate action in response to unsafe conditions brought to our attention.”
Keith Ernst, who stepped down Wednesday as the agency’s director, said, though, that the agency was “stretched too thin” in Iraq and that the small number of contract officers did not have expertise in dealing with so-called life support contracts, like that awarded to KBR to provide food, shelter and building maintenance. “We don’t have the technical capability for overseeing life support systems,” he said.
For its part, KBR, which until last year was known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton, denied that any lapses by the company had led to the electrocutions of American soldiers. “KBR’s commitment to employee safety and the safety of those the company serves is unwavering,” said a spokeswoman, Heather Browne. “KBR has found no evidence of a link between the work it has been tasked to perform and the reported electrocutions.”
Ms. Browne declined to respond to the specific accounts of former KBR electricians.
Those electricians have a ready response to anyone who suggests that poor electrical work might be considered an unavoidable cost of war. “The excuse KBR always used was, ‘This is a war zone — what do you expect?’ ” recalled Jeffrey Bliss, an Ohio electrician who worked for the company in Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006. “But if you are going to do the work, you have got to do it safe.”
Since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, tens of thousands of American troops have been housed in pre-existing Iraqi government buildings, some of them dangerously dilapidated. As part of its $30 billion contract with the Pentagon in Iraq, KBR was required to repair and upgrade many of the buildings, including their electrical systems. The company handles maintenance for 4,000 structures and 35,000 containerized housing units in the war zone, the Pentagon said.
Lawmakers and government investigators say it is now clear that the Bush administration outsourced so much work to KBR and other contractors in Iraq that the agencies charged with oversight have been overwhelmed. The Defense Contracting Management Agency has more than 9,000 employees, but it has only 60 contract officers in Iraq and 30 in Afghanistan to supervise nearly 18,000 KBR employees in Iraq and 4,400 in Afghanistan handling base maintenance.
“All the contract officers can do is check the paperwork,” said one agency official, who asked not to be identified. While about 600 military officers supplement the contract officers, Mr. Ernst said, the soldiers are not adequately trained for the task.
The Army has provided little detailed information about the electrocutions, other than to say late Friday that 10 soldiers had been electrocuted in Iraq. A House panel has also reported that two marines died similarly.
In the civilian work force, about 250 workers died from electrocution in the United States in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to the Army warning bulletin, two deaths occurred 10 days apart in May 2004 at different bases in northern Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Everett, 23, of the Texas National Guard was electrocuted in September 2005 while power-washing a Humvee at Camp Taqaddum, in central Iraq near Falluja. His mother, Larraine McGee said Army officials had told her that the equipment he was using was connected to a generator that was not properly grounded, and that soldiers had previously complained of shocks.
“We were told that as a result of his death all the generators were being repaired and that it wouldn’t happen again,” Ms. McGee said. “But if it is still going on, something’s not right.”
The most recent fatality occurred on Jan. 2 in Baghdad, when Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a Green Beret, died in a shower after an improperly grounded water pump short-circuited.
Nearly a year earlier, KBR issued a technical report to the contracting agency citing safety concerns related to the grounding and wiring in the building in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex, where Sergeant Maseth’s unit, the Army Fifth Special Forces Group, was housed.
Another soldier said in an interview that he was repeatedly shocked in the shower in December 2007 and submitted requests for repairs. But nothing was done until the day after Sergeant Maseth’s death, when the defense agency ordered KBR to correct the problem, according to Pentagon documents.
Cheryl Harris, Sergeant Maseth’s mother, said in an interview that the Army initially told her that her son had taken an electrical appliance into the shower with him. Later, she said, officials told her that investigators had found electrical wires hanging down around the shower. She said she had been skeptical of both accounts and learned the truth only after repeatedly questioning Army officials.
Her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR, the only such claim brought in any of the electrical deaths.
“I knew Ryan would not get into a shower with an electrical appliance, and having wires hanging overhead didn’t make sense,” said Ms. Harris, of Cranberry Township, Pa. “My biggest question is really, why would KBR do a safety inspection, know about the electrical problems and not alert the troops?”
Long before Sergeant Maseth’s death, KBR electricians were complaining about the dangers of unsafe electrical work at bases.
In 2006, John McLain was working as a KBR electrician at the United States regional embassy compound in Hilla, south of Baghdad, when he made a disturbing discovery. A KBR quality control inspector had recently cited employees there for failing to file quarterly ground resistance testing logs — reports on whether the wiring in the upgraded embassy building was properly grounded and safe.
Mr. McLain soon realized that the testing was not being conducted, because the building had never been grounded, though KBR and at least one Iraqi subcontractor were supposed to install proper safeguards during a renovation the previous year. Mr. McLain said he had sent a series of increasingly blunt memos and e-mail warnings about the safety hazards to KBR officials.
Mr. McLain said other KBR electricians later created logs that incorrectly made it appear that the grounding system existed. KBR fired him in 2007 after he told a visiting defense contracting agency official about his concerns. His candor proved useless, however. Mr. McLain said that the contracting agency official showed no interest. “He said, ‘I’m not an electrician; I don’t know what you are talking about,’ ”Mr. McLain recalled.
Noris Rogers, who worked for KBR in Afghanistan in 2005, said he repeatedly complained to his supervisors that electrical work at Camp Eggers, the American military’s command base in Kabul, Afghanistan, did not meet the requirements of the company’s Pentagon contract.
Mr. Bliss, who saw a soldier in Qalat, Afghanistan, get a severe shock from an electrical box that was not supposed to be charged, said his KBR bosses mocked him for raising safety issues. They were “not giving the Army what it needed,” he said, “and not giving the soldiers what they deserved.”
Explain to me how KBR, Halliburton, or any of the other contractors can continue to be paid for their “services.” How are they not being sued? Or, prosecuted?
That is very interesting ~JH~ but it does not explain thousands of suicides by our Gulf War vets. This two minute read link does.
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du_blowinginthewind.htm
That’s exactly correct ~NM Bill~. They want desperately to avoid the DU issue and instead call it PTSD.
Reasons for the suicides? Probably all of the above - gruesome memories, conscience, feeling of remorse, betrayal, abandonment, toxins and radiation that weaken so you feel unable to work or have relationships. Naturally the populations of Iraq and elsewhere are similarly affected, except for the guilt factor, which is major. They really had little choice in these matters.
Good question about the mercenaries. Does anyone have information about violence against self and others upon return home? It may make a difference if you know from the beginning you are in it just for the money.
The problem here is that people think complaining to the gov’t about the treatment of veterans will actually do something. You think the gov’t doesn’t know because of these sham hearings??
The only things to be done are
1) Stop complaining on the commondreams.org website
2) Local organizing around alternatives to military entry for young people (moral complaints about war are not enough for people who don’t have money)
3) Information campaigns to youth and their parents about what is happening in the military as well as in DC.
This isn’t an isolated problem. When we discuss veteran treatment we are discussing war. When we discuss war and US foreign policy we are discussing capitalism and its policy requirements.
Endgame? We must combine local organizing of people to create alternatives to military service with a broader vision of what kind of society we want to move towards. Capitalism is causing this problem and if we don’t have a vision for something other than capitalism we’ll just be hacking away at branches til the next war comes along.
~INGEMER~ You say we should stop complaining here at Common Dreams. What are you doing here then?
We don’t just complain here, we learn from one another, share ideas and offer links with articles that inform us.