According to a report by the Department of Veterans Affairs, 22 veterans commit suicide every day. In this article from the Huffington Post, more active-duty U.S. soldiers have died from suicide than from combat in 2012. Researchers at the National Center for Veterans Studies in Salt Lake City report that Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) might be the cause of the increased suicide rates.
I remember back in the early days of the Iraq War how some members of the Bush Administration were positive the war would cost under 50 billion. Of course everyone knows we’ve exceeded that estimate but what we don’t know yet is how much needs to be spent on veterans and their injuries, especially from the unprecedented numbers of traumatic brain injuries during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.