VFA News Analysis: May 6, 2008

Suicides and “psychological mortality” among U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are poised to surpass battlefield deaths, according to the U.S. Institute of Mental Health.  Of the 1.6 million American soldiers deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan, about one-fifth, or 300,000, show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or both. An estimated 70 percent of those affected will not seek help.

The U.S. Army is strained by the war in Iraq – so much so, according to some, that the mission in Afghanistan will suffer because of it. The Army is in a “zero-sum state.” Extended tours, the surge of forces in Iraq and other issues have hamstrung the flexibility of U.S. military planners. Only a few options exist, and they’re painful, to remedy the problem. These include mobilizing the entire Guard and Reserves, which has never been done before, or sacrifice the U.S. mission elsewhere like South Korea.

That strain is noted not merely by analysts, but military officers as well.

The effects of the strain are confounding military planners seeking to bolster Afghan forces.

VFA’s work at Fort Drum, N.Y., highlighting the ever-mounting shortage of mental health care resources continues to serve as a “canary in a coal mine” for the problems facing the military at large. The military and experts agree that there are too few therapists to treat soldiers who are increasingly bringing trauma with them back from the battlefields.