Are soldiers fighting in Iraq more likely than other soldiers to take their own lives? According to a long-awaited Army report, due next week, 19 soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom committed suicide in 2003--a number that officials acknowledge is "above average." Typically, military suicide rates drop during deployments.
The report, which also looks at the prevalence of combat stress and posttraumatic stress disorder in Iraq, was produced by the Army's 12-member Mental Health Advisory Team, sent to Iraq in September. The report blames the self-induced deaths on a combination of factors, including depression (a common side effect of PTSD) and easy access to guns. Ironically, the military had designated 2003 as its suicide education and prevention year.
But the problem may be more serious than the report shows. Last week some veterans criticized the military for narrowing the scope of its study to only those incidents that occurred in Iraq, and to those where the cause of death was definitive. "By my estimation, there are another 10 to 15 suspicious noncombatant deaths in Iraq that are still under investigation," said Steve Robinson, executive director the National Gulf War Resource Center. "And there are reportedly 67 stateside suicides, none of which have been attributed to wartime service. I want to know how many of those involved people who served in Iraq." Among those under investigation: two recent deaths at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Military mental-health experts echoed some of those views, saying that many soldiers often don't show the psychic wounds of battle until after they're sent home.
-Pat Wingert and T. Trent Gegax