At Least 430 Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans Have Committed Suicide

It's time to change of count of American war dead upward.

The Associated Press has got hold of a preliminary government study on suicides by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. According to the VA, at least 283 combat veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 and the end of 2005 took their own lives. In addition, 147 troops have killed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began bringing the government count to 430.

The VA's count is not a complete one, however. It does not include members of the military who returned from Iraq and then killed themselves before being discharged from the service -- people like Sgt. Brian Rand who shot himself in the head after returning home from his second tour.

It also doesn't include the deaths of people like Sgt. James Dean who was shot by Maryland state troopers after he barricaded himself in his father's farmhouse. Observers call those deaths "suicide by cop."

And it doesn't include the deaths of people like Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, a 32-year- old Indiana National Guardsman, who died at Fort Knox five months after returning from Iraq with brain damage from a roadside bomb.

How many more American deaths continue to go uncounted?

Regardless, it's clear is that we need to change our count of casualties upward from 4,229 .U.S military deaths (3,842 in Iraq and 387 in Afghanistan) to closer to 5,000 -- possibly more when you consider those deaths that still haven't been counted.

Comments

[Arji]

This is yet another national shame. As a Vietnam era veteran I just flat gave up trying to get help from any VA facility. They are typically under staffed, under paid, poorly managed and often down right antiquated. We tend to worship and overpay movie stars, sports stars, music stars and a variety of folks who really have no value to our society. Our veterans place their lives on the line for the rest of us.....seems there is some value to their efforts. As usual, America ignores the really valuabe citizens and honors the value-less. When will we wake up as human beings?

[HeevenSteven]

From the AP story:

"the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops " the highest level in 26 years of record-keeping.....The Army has said the civilian rate for the same age and gender mix as in the Army is 19 to 20 per 100,000 people."

Looks like staying home doesn't help either. Who'da thunk it?