Iraq II: The Walking Wounded

It is the Americans who come home from Iraq and Afghanistan in flag-draped pine boxes who have gotten the most attention, but there has been a steady trickle of war wounded filtering back into cities and towns across the U.S. over the last five years.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Archive at George Washington University has pried a startling statistic from the Department of Veterans Affairs:

* Nearly one in five soldiers leaving the military after serving in those two countries has been at least partly disabled and total more than 100,000 to date.

* The most common disabilities are musculoskeletal disorders like back pain, followed by mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress, according to a separate Veterans Administration study. About 30,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have sought treatment for post traumatic stress.

The bottom line is that taxpayers have only begun to pay for the disabled from the two conflicts, which the veterans affairs department says may total as many as 400,000 if the current proportion holds up over time.

More here on the disability crisis and here for my take on post-traumatic stress.

ANOTHER AMDISSION OF FAILURE

The senior American commander in Iraq has stated the obvious -- despite a concerted security sweep led by U.S. troops, violence in Baghdad had reached its highest levels since the war began.

More here.