The VA doesn't track the suicides of Iraq war vets

i'm astounded... after the miserable record accumulated over the treatment of vietnam war vets, all the problems they experienced (and are still experiencing - i speak first-hand), i am dumbfounded that suicides of iraq war vets are not being tracked...

More than four years into the war, the government has little information on suicides among Iraq war veterans.

"We don’t keep that data," said Karen Fedele, a VA spokeswoman in Washington. "I’m told that somebody here is going to do an analysis, but there just is nothing right now."

The Defense Department does track suicides, but only among troops in combat operations such as Iraq and Afghanistan and in surrounding areas. Since the war started four years ago, 107 suicides during Iraq operations have been recorded by the Defense Manpower Data Center, which collects data for the Pentagon. That number, however, usually does not include troops who return home from the war zone and then take their lives.

what this clearly says is that a suicide is only meaningful if a cog in the war machine has to be replaced... when you're no longer actively a part of the war machine, who the hell cares...

(thanks to arthur silber...)

Submit To Propeller
Tweet