Since 2003 about 40,000 Troops Suffer Post Traumatic Stress
Pauline Jeliner, HuffPost
WASHINGTON — The number of troops with new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007 amid the military buildup in Iraq and increased violence there and in Afghanistan.
Records show roughly 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with the illness, also known as PTSD, since 2003. Officials believe that many more are likely keeping their illness a secret.
"I don't think right now we ... have good numbers," Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker said Tuesday.
Defense officials had not previously disclosed the number of PTSD cases from
Administration Lying Harms Veterans
Aaron Glantz, Foreign Policy in Focus
Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas.
These are statistics that most Americans don't know, because the Bush administration has refused to tell them. Since the start of the Iraq War, the government has tried to present it as a war without casualties.
In fact, they never would have come to light were it not for a class action lawsuit brought by Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth on behalf of the 1.7 million Americans who have served in
The case, officially known as Veterans for Common Sense vs. Peake, went to trial last month at a Federal Courthouse in
That's because over the course of the two week trial, the VA was compelled to produce a series of documents that show the extent of the crisis effecting wounded soldiers.
"Shh!" begins one e-mail from Dr. Ira Katz, the head of the VA's Mental Health Division, advising a media spokesperson not to tell CBS News that 1,000 veterans receiving care at the VA try to kill themselves every month.
"Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?" the e-mail concludes.
Leading Democrats on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee immediately called for Katz's resignation. On May 6, the Chair of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Bob Filner (D-CA) convened a hearing titled "The Truth About Veteran's Suicides" and called Katz and VA Secretary James Peake to testify.
"That e-mail was in poor tone but the content was part of a dialogue about what we should do about new information," Katz said in response to Filner's questions. "The e-mail represents a healthy dialogue among members of VA staff about when it's appropriate to disclose and make public information early in the process."
Filner was nonplused and accused Katz and Peake of a "cover-up."
"We should all be angry about what has gone on here," Filner said. "This is a matter of life and death for the veterans that we are responsible for and I think there was criminal negligence in the way this was handled. If we do not admit, assume or know then the problem will continue and people will die. If that's not criminal negligence, I don't know what is."
It's also part of a pattern. The high number of veteran suicides weren't the only government statistics the Bush Administration was forced to reveal because of the class action lawsuit.
Another set of documents presented in court showed that in the six months leading up to March 31, a total of 1,467 veterans died waiting to learn if their disability claim would be approved by the government. A third set of documents showed that veterans who appeal a VA decision to deny their disability claim have to wait an average of 1,608 days, or nearly four and a half years, for their answer.
Other casualty statistics are not directly concealed, but are also not revealed on a regular basis. For example, the Pentagon regularly reports on the numbers of American troops "wounded" in
Here's another number that we don't often hear discussed in the media: 287,790. That's the number of returning
Why all the secrecy? Why is it so hard to get accurate casualty figures out of our government? Because the Bush Administration knows if Americans woke up to the real, human costs of this war they would fight harder to oppose it.
Think back to 2002, before the invasion of
Or consider this statement from Vice President Dick Cheney. Two days before the invasion, Cheney told NBC's Tim Russert the war would "go relatively quickly…(ending in) weeks rather than months."
Today, those comments are gone but the motivation behind them remains. This is why the VA's head of mental health wrote "Shh!" telling a spokesperson not to respond to a reporters' inquiry.
But all the shhing in the world cannot stop the horrible pain that's mounting after five years of war in
According to an April 2008 study by the Rand Corporation, 300,000
In its study, the RAND Corporation wrote that the federal government fails to care for war veterans at its own peril -- noting post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury "can have far reaching and damaging consequences."
"Individuals afflicted with these conditions face higher risks for other psychological problems and for attempting suicide. They have higher rates of unhealthy behaviors -- such as smoking, overeating, and unsafe sex -- and higher rates of physical health problems and mortality. Individuals with these conditions also tend to miss more work or report being less productive," the report said. "These conditions can impair relationships, disrupt marriages, aggravate the difficulties of parenting, and cause problems in children that may extend the consequences of combat trauma across generations."
"These consequences can have a high economic toll,"
Bush and Congress have the power to stop this problem before it gets worse. It's not too late to extend needed mental health care to our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans; it's not too late to begin properly screening and treating returning servicemen and women who've experienced a traumatic brain injury; and it is not too late to simplify the disability claims process so that wounded veterans do not die waiting for their check. As the
To start with, the Bush Administration needs to give us some honest information about the true human costs of the Iraq War.
Aaron Glantz, a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor, is the author of two upcoming books on Iraq: The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans (UC Press) and Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations (Haymarket). He edits the website WarComesHome.org.
'Iraq at Five: The World Reacts'
by Jillian York
Today, March 19, marks five years of "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Initially a plan to oust Saddam Hussein and "end the war before it started," the war in Iraq continues to this day, much to the dismay of many ordinary citizens around the globe. In that vein, Global Voices Online will post reactions today from bloggers in Iraq, the Middle East and North Africa, and elsewhere.
Jordanian blogger The Black Iris leads off a post with a list of "the number of Iraqis freed," saying "take your pick":
- 82,000 and 89,000 - Iraq Body Count
- 151,000 - Iraqi government & the World Health Organization (Mar.03 - Jun.06)
- 654,865 - British medical journal The Lancet (March 2003 and July 2006)
- 1,189,173 - Opinion Research Business (as of 2008)
Egyptian Ha Ana Za takes a trip back in time and shares her feelings here:
I remember in 2003, many celebrated the toppling of Saddam's giant statue in the centre of Baghdad and all expected Iraq to be a free and democratic country by the end of the year, a shining beacon of liberal values across the Middle East. Five years on and the death toll has been estimated to being as high as 1,120,000, and with as many as 5 million Iraqis being displaced. Iraq as a country seems to be further away from peace than ever before, with internal sectarian strife making dreams of stability seem impossible.
She also asks:
Why do we continue to forget Iraq? Everyday we are delivered news of suicide bombings and attacks and yet we are numbed to the horror? Perhaps we shed a few tears and then turn our attention back to the football game. In this way we are all guilty.
From Turkey, blogger WorldTurkey laments the anniversary of the war:
For a majority of Americans, today marks the fifth anniversary of the start of an Iraq war that was not worth fighting, one that has cost thousands of lives and more than half a trillion dollars. For the Bush administration, however, it is the first anniversary of an Iraq strategy that it believes has finally started to succeed.
Syrian Maysaloon, referencing Robert Fisk's recent article on the war, comments:
I liked Fisk's last article. It's so easy to be distracted with the rubbish said by both the people who are against the war in Iraq as well as those for it. That is why it is so refreshing to read an article from someone who has an accuate perspective of what's happening - and an interest in history. Regardless of criticisms, Fisk is good when he writes on most things except Lebanon where, I agree with Abu Khalil, he is virtually unreadable. Having said that, Pity the Nation will always be one of my favourite books.
In Palestine, Al-falasteenyia remembers how the war started:
Five years ago-
It was my freshman year of college and I was having dinner with friends at the campus center when Bush came on TV. The campus center was usually very busy at this hour, but when Bush started talking everything stopped. As he declared war on Iraq, I looked around and saw that everyone was completely frozen, staring at the screen- they had even stopped eating. It was one of those moments I would remember forever because life would never be the same after that moment. I couldn't finish my dinner afterwards. I knew what would come next- but I had no idea exactly how bad things would turn out. In the weeks that followed we saw the bombing over Baghdad- the TV lit up in green and they called it shock and awe. I wondered why they didn't call the operation as it is- bombing the hell out of Iraqis.
She wonders when we'll remember Iraq and Palestine:
The sad reality is that whether its Iraq or Palestine or almost any place else in the "Middle East" - we are not in control of our own fate. It's been sixty years and Palestinians are wondering when they will be able to return home. I sometimes wonder if it will take another sixty years before Palestinians and Iraqis make it back home. In the meantime, we continue to sit, watch, and lament: wondering, waiting, for the day we re-claim our destiny.
American blogger Juan Cole (a professor of history and the Middle East) of Informed Comment characterizes the past five years by Bush's actions:
I posit that each year of the war has been characterized by a central lie by the Bush propaganda machine.
Year 1: "There is no guerilla war."
Year 2: "Iraq is a model democracy."
Year 3: "Zarqawi is causing all the trouble."
Year 4: "There is no Civil War."
Year 5: "Everything is calm now."
I also suggest that John McCain is pushing for:
Year 6: "Total victory is around the corner."
Finally, The Angry Arab News Service out of Lebanon reacts to Bush's speech earlier today:
I watched Bush earlier. He is still trying to scare Americans. This guy will continue to scare the American people to the last day of his presidency. There were people like this dude in the middle ages: these were the men who roamed the streets and village squares yelling about the evil of women witches and heretics.
Creative Commons-licensed photo by Dean Terry
You may view the latest post at
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/03/19/iraq-at-five-the-world-reacts/
