“I think God just took him away from that battlefield, that’s what I think. I think God just said, ‘C’mon let’s go, it’s not for you.’”
— Rena Mathis, mother of a U.S. soldier who committed suicide in Iraq

According to a recent government study, former and current American soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan accounted for 20 percent of the suicides committed in the United States in 16 states in the year 2005.

The remaining states had inadequate measuring techniques, so numbers for those states remain unavailable.

The report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that of the 1,821 military suicides in 16 states during 2005, half had been suffering from chronic depression and a third of the chronically depressed left notes detailing the debilitating effects of battle on their mental states.

The CDC study also found that combat veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as those who had not participated in battle. The study found that the suicides were most likely to take place in the home, with most suicide victims choosing a gun, poison or hanging as their modus operandi.

Nearly two-thirds had a high level of alcohol in the blood, a drug known to accentuate depression.

As the number of tours of duty has increased and as the length of a tour has been extended to 15 months, a follow-up shows suicide rates among military personnel have continued to increase since the previous study.

Of the soldiers deployed in Iraq, an army report found those serving in battle between 2003-2006 committed suicide at a rate 40 percent higher than the average rate of previous military veterans.

A recent study by the Rand Corporation provided the following alarming statistics: Of the approximately 1.6 million women and men who have served in either Iraq or Afghanistan, 300,000 suffer from some form of mental illness and an additional 320,000 suffer from a brain injury. Of these, only half sought treatment.

If the remaining numbers of those suffering the effects of depression and brain injuries choose not to seek help, there will be long-term problems for the individuals, their families and for the nation that sent them to war.

The Department of Defense has refused to release the number of people treated for mental disease associated with their tenure of service in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

It was the Rand Corporation, a private company, that issued the report showing that of the 320,000 soldiers suffering a brain injury, only 43 percent had been evaluated by a physician. Many not seeking aid were worried a visit to the doc could damage their careers. Others were ashamed, feeling that seeking treatment would be seen as a sign of weakness and they would risk shunning by fellow soldiers.

For those seeking more details, the 500-page report is titled “Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery.”

Wars fought for no discernible reason heighten the mental suffering among the ranks, resulting in above-average divorce rates and higher-than-average rates of spousal and child abuse.

It is a sad day for those who went to war with the highest moral purpose only to discover that the years of their lives expended in war have resulted in abject failure and that the very government that committed them is failing to help restore their lives.

The Bush government’s lack of adequate attention to the problem of mental illness and brain injuries suffered while fighting in the “twin wars,” is an insult to the brave women and men who thought they were doing the right thing, only later to discover that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would become never ending, fought for no purpose other than to assuage a president’s personal arrogance.

At the time of enlistment, American soldiers did not realize that their biggest battles would be against the chronic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder suffered as a result of following the orders of a profane commander-in-chief.

Thom Carnevale may be reached at http://sanjuansentinel.blogspot.com.