Suicides Soar among US War Veterans

The economic recession and war trauma suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan has pushed a rising number of US veterans to commit suicide.

An AFP report said on Thursday several studies have shown that suicides are on the rise among young adults that have left the military.

"It's compounded by the stress, the trauma that goes with the current operations, where we have a much smaller military being asked to do so much and then repeat it tour after tour," according to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

Shinseki reiterated that "I know the suicide numbers are up."

In January, Shinseki pointed out that 20 percent of some 30,000 suicides in the US each year are committed by veterans, which means that an average of 18 veterans commit suicide each day.

A record 309 service members committed suicide last year, up from 267 in 2008, according to Pentagon figures.

The number of suicides between 2005 and 2009, reported at 1,100, exceeded the number of US military members killed in the Afghanistan war since it began in 2001.

The backlog of disability claims made by war veterans soared to over 700,000 this year, up from 400,000 to 500,000 the year before, according to Shinseki.

Shinseki said the number of new cases has increased faster than his agency's capacity. Even though 977,000 cases were resolved last year, a million new cases have been added to the growing backlog.

Large numbers of young veterans who took part in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in addition to older cases.

"We have PTSD treatment going on with veterans that go back to World War II, Korea, Vietnam. So it's a large generational issue," Shinseki said.

Shinseki also stated that the economic downturn has had an additional impact on families over the past year and a half, while his organization has struggled to meet a goal to end homelessness among veterans within a five-year timeframe.

There are approximately 23 million veterans in the United States. Of those, only eight million are currently registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs.