235 US Military forces committed suicide in Iraq

Iraq War Casualties Still Ripple Across The Home Front, Huffington Post, by David Wood posted today has an incredible amount of information few in this country are aware of. I urge you to read the entire article.

There are two parts you should pay attention to. This first one points out how dangerous it was for the troops.

In contrast to past conflicts, where soldiers could retreat to "safe" areas in the rear, the survey found that in 2006, more than two-thirds of the U.S. troops in Iraq had been attacked and had received small-arms fire, 65 percent had seen dead bodies and 72 percent knew someone who had been killed or seriously injured. Eighty-eight percent had experienced incoming artillery or mortar fire, and 45 percent had shot at the enemy. Half had felt an IED explode nearby. Sixty percent reported having a member of their unit become a casualty.

Yet it is this part that supports the simple fact that more suicides happen after combat than during it. With this, "During that time, 1,111,610 Americans served there for a total of 2,337,197 deployments, with some serving two or more times", look at the number of suicides while deployed into Iraq.

"Two hundred and thirty-five took their own lives while deployed."

That is what most people simply don't get. They survived combat, but could not survive being back home.