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Today's Top News
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 |
Do Veteran Suicides Exceed U.S. Deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq?
WASHINGTON - October 18 -
AARON GLANTZ
Available for a limited number of interviews, Glantz just wrote the investigative piece "After Service, Veteran Deaths Surge: Suicides, vehicle accidents and drug overdoses take lives," simultaneously published in the Bay Citizen and by the New York Times.
The piece states: "In the six years after Reuben Paul Santos returned to Daly City from a combat tour in Iraq, he battled depression with poetry, violent video games and, finally, psychiatric treatment. His struggle ended last October, when he hung himself from a stairwell. He was 27.
"The high suicide rate among veterans has already emerged as a major issue for the military and the families and loved ones of military personnel. But Santos' death is part of a larger trend that has remained hidden: a surge in the number of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans who have died not just as a result of suicide, but also because of vehicle accidents, motorcycle crashes, drug overdoses or other causes after being discharged from the military.
"An analysis of official death certificates on file at the State Department of Public Health reveals that more than 1,000 California veterans under 35 died between 2005 and 2008. That figure is three times higher than the number of California service members who were killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts over the same period. The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs said they do not count the number of veterans who have died after leaving the military."
Glantz is a reporter at the Bay Citizen and author of The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans. He has spent over seven years covering the war in Iraq and the treatment veterans receive when they come home.
AARON GLANTZ
Available for a limited number of interviews, Glantz just wrote the investigative piece "After Service, Veteran Deaths Surge: Suicides, vehicle accidents and drug overdoses take lives," simultaneously published in the Bay Citizen and by the New York Times.
The piece states: "In the six years after Reuben Paul Santos returned to Daly City from a combat tour in Iraq, he battled depression with poetry, violent video games and, finally, psychiatric treatment. His struggle ended last October, when he hung himself from a stairwell. He was 27.
"The high suicide rate among veterans has already emerged as a major issue for the military and the families and loved ones of military personnel. But Santos' death is part of a larger trend that has remained hidden: a surge in the number of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans who have died not just as a result of suicide, but also because of vehicle accidents, motorcycle crashes, drug overdoses or other causes after being discharged from the military.
"An analysis of official death certificates on file at the State Department of Public Health reveals that more than 1,000 California veterans under 35 died between 2005 and 2008. That figure is three times higher than the number of California service members who were killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts over the same period. The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs said they do not count the number of veterans who have died after leaving the military."
Glantz is a reporter at the Bay Citizen and author of The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans. He has spent over seven years covering the war in Iraq and the treatment veterans receive when they come home.
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7 Comments so far
Show All"Old soldiers never die, they just fade away." Well something is wrong here , military, because YOUNG soldiers aren't even getting to the old part.
Is it the awfulness of war, pollution from the war, or is our military using unwilling and uninformed people to test dtugs again?
How many veterans from other wars had high suicide rates?
IPA, Please go back to WW II and Vietnam and compare.
i heard this earlier while listening to democracy now! from other sources i've heard that about 60% of returning soldiers go with a prescription for a sleeping pill or even and antidepressant tucked into the pack. remember the psychiatrist from ft. hood? apparently he complained to friends that he could not be a healer because his job was more to cover over symptoms and send 'em back to front. broken or not, here i come!
aside from the tactic of ignoring and denying the problem, the military is looking for a way that young soldiers can just accept that there's nothing morally wrong with killing even innocents in a war zone. in other words if we can completely eliminate the moral compass, creating an army of sociopaths the world will be a better place for it.
Make that Psychopaths. Sociopaths do not kill. Ever wonder how much Big Pharma is profiting from their association with the MIC?
but what is the suicide rate ? without this one number, this whole article could be nonsense.
The articles says that more vets died by suicide then in iraq/afghanistan
but, without knowing what the RATE of suicides is, and how it compares tot he rate among similar non vets - people of similar age and income - the statistics offered in this press release are just meaningless
Perhaps, you should go and complete the study, answer your own questions and inform the rest of us.
The article says that the veteran death rate (due to suicide and other violence) is greater than the death rate of active duty soldiers in Iraq and Affghanistan during that particular time frame. They're dying after coming home- presumably from combat-related issues not being addressed.
The US should declare a war on itself, invade itself and bomb its terrorism out of itself. The government is killing more people than all the "terrorists" combined (real and imaginary). Really, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and whoever else has been labeled as a "terrorist" organization should be patting themselves on the shoulder right now for a job well done for them by the US government.