1,668,000 service members deployed to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, about one-half of one percent of the 300 million U.S. population.
Nearly 100 percent involved in combat for more than six years in Afghanistan and more than five years in Iraq.
600,000 estimated casualties from both wars so far, where only half sought medical care.
500,000 deployed twice or more into combat – which increases risk of post traumatic stress disorder by 50 percent.
300,000 treated at VA hospitals after their return home – and VA still lacks a plan to handle the flood of casualties.
288,000 filed claims against VA for military-related disabilities, and again VA has no plan.
58,300 forced to remain in war under stop loss – military orders that force a soldier to remain in the military past the end of their enlistment contract.
43,000 deployed combat after they were already declared unfit by a doctor – with broken legs, brain damage, and post traumatic stress disorder.
120 veterans complete a suicide every week. And 1,000 attempt suicide while under VA care each month. This is VCS in action, working hard to ensure that America does not forget about the sacrifices of our servie members, veterans, and families make.
2 comments:
This is the sort of information that the public has to hunt for but is very important. Those who say "support our troops" are the ones who aren't supporting them, as against the military contractors and themselves. The weapons of contemporary warfare, the ear shattering explosives, the hourly dangers of being an occupying army in a country where large numbers of people have firearms, the reality that most of the people don't want you there and that your government is not really protecting you, but using you as an expendable item, to be recycled and recyled until you can't be recycled anymore, is behind these statistics, which can only gert worse as the occupation continues.
Norman Markowitz
Good point Norman. I should add that the veterans group that published the info only got it through Freedom of Information Act requests rather than publicly available data.
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