Politics

The Cost of War in Iraq on Our Troops

By Office of the Speaker

The President?s war ? now into the sixth year ? is taking a grave toll on our troops as deployments continue and our forces and their families grow more stressed. Many servicemen and women are being required to undertake lengthy deployments into the war zone two, three or even four times ? placing enormous strain on them and their families and increasing their risk of struggling with mental health issues including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when they return home.

The hundreds of thousands of brave men and women in uniform serving in Iraq ? and their families ? deserve more from the Bush Administration than the rising stress and strain of an endless war.

· Col. Charles Hoge, Chief of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Walter Reed Institute of Research
?There?s a direct connection between mental health and multiple deployments.? [Army Times, 4/14/08]

· ?Almost 59,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Army post-deployment health assessments have found that 20 percent of active-duty and 40 percent of reserve-component troops had symptoms of PTSD, and some experts say the real numbers could be much higher.? [Army Times, 4/14/08]

· The Army?s Mental Health Advisory Team issued a report recently assessing the mental health of soldiers deployed to Iraq [3/6/08]:

o ?Reports of work-related problems due to stress, mental health problems and marital separations generally increased with each subsequent month of the deployment?? (pg. 4)

o ?Primary Care personnel report significant increases in the number of medications prescribed for sleep, depression, and anxiety relative to 2006.? (pg. 14)

o ?Soldiers who were on their second deployment or on their third/fourth deployment were at increased risk for low morale, mental health problems and degraded performance due to stress or emotional problems.? (pg. 50)

o ?As the troop footprint in Iraq has surged, the number of mental health providers relative to the number of Soldiers has decreased.? (pg. 91)

· An estimated 2,100 troops tried to commit suicide or injure themselves last year ? up from 350 in 2002. [U.S. News & World Report, 2/25-3/3]

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 15, 2008 (boomark / email).