Stress epidemic strikes American forces in Iraq

[hedgetrimmer]

link: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1130773,00.html

~SNIP~

The war's over, but the suicide rate is high and the army is riddled with acute psychiatric problems. Peter Beaumont reports

Sunday January 25, 2004
The Observer

Up to one in five of the American military personnel in Iraq will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, say senior forces' medical staff dealing with the psychiatric fallout of the war.

This revelation follows the disclosure last month that more than 600 US servicemen and women have been evacuated from the country for psychiatric reasons since the conflict started last March.

At least 22 US soldiers have killed themselves - a rate considered abnormally high - mostly since President George Bush declared an end to major combat on 1 May last year, These suicides have led to a high-level Department of Defence investigation, details of which will be disclosed in the next few weeks.

Although the overall suicide rate is running at an average of 13.5 per 100,000 troops, compared with a US army average of 10.5 to 11 per 100,000 in recent years, the incidence of the vast majority of suicides in the period after 1 May is statistically significant, accounting for about 7 per cent of all service deaths in Iraq.

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[lebkuchen]

1. Life-altering disabilities from Iraq, both physical and mental,

are the burden the US must bear as a result of its quixotic "adventurism," with tax dollars prioritized to meet our suffering troops' needs.