Please, can't we talk about this?

Our servicemen and women who make it to Iraq and back are facing challenges when they return home that we just aren't paying attention to.

They are killing themselves.

You almost have to laugh at the headline "Vets' growing suicide worries officials." Does it? Worry? Is that the most they can muster?

There are a few hopeful signs of change in our attitude and awareness:

The suicide figures among veterans have caught congressional attention. Two senators have demanded the resignation of Ira Katz, the VA official who wrote "Shh" at the top of the e-mail dealing with suicide attempts and disputed the statistics in public testimony while confirming them in internal documents. A House committee has scheduled a hearing on veterans' suicides this week.

Resignation is an awful nice thing to offer someone who thinks and does that.

Also, and I'm no mental health professional, but, we can't figure out what is bothering veterans?

The causes for this increase in veterans' suicide rates aren't well understood, but mental-health professionals say the biggest problem is post-traumatic stress disorder. The ailment, better-known as PTSD, is thought to afflict up to 30 percent of the troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

War is hell. Is that a good reason? Works for me. And it's probably as close as the non-serving among us can come to getting it.

The time for allowing ourselves to pay lip service and nothing more to those who have served us so willingly has passed.

Help them heal.