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A shameful aftermath

Politicians stand condemned for sending troops off to war, especially without good cause.    Think Iraq and Afghanistan as but two recent examples.   

It is not only the actual consequences of fighting - sometimes leading to death or injury - but the aftermath on a soldier's return to civilian life.    Trouble is, it isn't a "life" for many.     Nicholas D Kristof, writing in The New York Times bluntly calls it as it is for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.   It is a shocking "picture"......and shameful.

"Here's a window into a tragedy within the American military: For every soldier killed on the battlefield this year, about 25 veterans are dying by their own hands.

An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year — more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since those wars began."

****

"Estimates of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury vary widely, but a ballpark figure is that the problems afflict at least one in five veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq. One study found that by their third or fourth tours in Iraq or Afghanistan, more than one-quarter of soldiers had such mental health problems.

Preliminary figures suggest that being a veteran now roughly doubles one’s risk of suicide. For young men ages 17 to 24, being a veteran almost quadruples the risk of suicide, according to a study in The American Journal of Public Health."

Read the complete piece here.

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