Whether it is due to economic hopelessness and despair or post traumatic stress disorder hopelessness and despair from serving in war, we are seeing too many suicides from people who seem to feel the world has left them with no other option.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this whole situation is that the Obama administration launched its effort to support military families this week. Sadly, however, the program being launched is being used as a vehicle to rehabilitate the image of war criminal Stanley McChrystal, against the wishes of Pat Tillman’s family, who suffered greatly from McChrystal’s role in covering up the friendly fire aspect of Tillman’s death. Furthermore, the program is being administered by the Center for a New American Security, which is funded by military contractors and is involved in a campaign to sell the idea of extending the Iraq war. At a time when it should be stepping up real services for both active military personnel and for veterans, the Obama administration is playing the worst sort of cynical politics with military families. There are no words to describe the evil of this situation.

Phillip Carter helped found Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America after a tour of duty advising the Iraqi police in Baqubah. He wrote amicus briefs in two Supreme Court cases, FAIR v. Rumsfeld and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, where the Court reined in the Bush Administration’s executive over-reach, and became a leading critic of their methods in the war on terror. When he was hired by the Defense Department in April to coordinate detainee policy and help with the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, civil liberties groups considered that the Obama Administration was moving in the right direction.

He abruptly resigned late last week.