The forgotten casualties of war

[Skybird]

Since years I use to say that the Allied losses in killed and wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq must be rated as being several times as high as the official statistics display.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...685442,00.html

About one in every five US soldiers who returns home after a tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan later finds him- or herself battling traumatic neuroses. An estimated 300,000 US war veterans suffer from PTSD, though many don't seek medical help for fear that they will be classified as being mentally ill. According to the findings of a survey commissioned by the Rand Corporation, an American think tank, only half of those who can eventually overcome their reticence and seek medical help receive even the "barely adequate" treatment they require.
In 2009, more than twice as many US servicemen and women committed suicide than were killed in combat in Iraq (334 and 149, respectively). A year earlier, military doctors found that, each month, roughly 1,000 veterans were trying to take their own life. More than 100 veterans of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have completely snapped after returning home and ended up killing others. A third of their victims were girlfriends, wives or other family members.

Tragic. Though not on that numerical scale, many German soldiers return from Afghanistan heavily traumatised, too. It is a universal epidemic, not specific for Americans in Iraq.

Things like this they also should tell the teens that they try to fascinate for the military when sending recruiters to highschools. It is not any different from making a visitor in a bar drunk, lurking him into a dark sidestreet, knock him out, pack him onto a ship and then clear for the open sea. People wanting to join the military by heart, will find the according bureaus all by themselves. Actively hunting down unexperienced, unknowing teenagers, is a moral crime. I compare it to the abuse of juvenile enthusiasm and sense for adventure by the HJ, who tried to raise interest and loyalty for the soldier'S life by holding scout meetings, adventure game sin the forest and sit-ins by the campfire. Not different to putting young boys on a tank and letting them "shoot" with a heavy machine gun and then sending them home with wide open eyes, telling their Mum: "When I'm grown up I want to be a soldier!"