"Paul" wrote
"BE-VA" wrote
On Fri, wrote:
More American US veterans are dying by their own hand back home in one
year, than have died in battle in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
That's a lie.

No actually its true.... but ONLY if you include the suicides of ALL
veterans in any given year... NOT just the ones that have served in Iraq
/
Afghanistan.
But CBS spins the issue to make it "Look like" returning Vets are
killing
themselves at a high rate.

Veterans as a group have a SLIGHTLY higher rate if suicide than the
general
public, if you check more than one years figures....

In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256
suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That's 120 each and
every week, in just one year. Dr. Steve Rathbun is the acting head of the
Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Georgia.
CBS
News asked him to run a detailed analysis of the raw numbers that we
obtained from state authorities for 2004 and 2005. It found that veterans
were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets.
(Veterans committed suicide at the rate of between 18.7 to 20.8 per
100,000,
compared to other Americans, who did so at the rate of 8.9 per 100,000.)

Thanks Paul for some real numbers.
Here are some I find relevant (slightly different - also
I cut and paste for straight time-line):
The suicide rate for the Army has fluctuated over the past 25 years,

from a high of 15.8 per 100,000 in 1985 - - -

The Army recorded 90 suicides in 1993, with a suicide rate of 14.2 per
100,000.

The Army rate is higher than the civilian suicide rate for 2003, which was
10.8 per 100,000, -- But the Army number tracked closely with the rate for
civilians aged 18-34, which was 12.19 per 100,000 in 2003.

to a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001. Last year it was nearly 13 per 100,000.

Males are 4 times as likely, so there also is a natural 'tilt' towards
veterans.