Friday 26 October 2018

Hiding in plain sight: the US veteran suicide problem

As of June 29, 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Defense casualty website, there were 4,424 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile) and 31,952 wounded in action (WIA) as a result of the Iraq War.
United States military veteran suicide is an ongoing phenomenon regarding a reportedly high rate of suicide among U.S. military veterans, in comparison to the general public. According to the most recent report published by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2016, which analyzed 55 million veterans' records from 1979 to 2014, the current analysis indicates that an average of 20 veterans a day die from suicide.

That means that since the Iraq war debacle in 2003, approximately 110,000 vets have died by their own hands, about 25 five times the casualty number in the war itself. As they say: 'go figure!'

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