October 14, 2008 - Today, Veterans for Common Sense releases our new "VA Fact Sheet," our monthly statistical report describing the impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This month's "VA Fact Sheet" reveals the fact that more than 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have filed a disability compensation claim against VA.  Our VCS report also shows that nearly 350,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have already been treated at VA hospitals and clinics.

There are two new and important points from our latest VA Fact Sheet:

1. More than 50,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans' claims remain pending and incomplete due to VA's enormous claims backlog.  More than 24,000 of the pending claims are re-opened or appealed cases.  VCS Believes VA should do a better job obtaining records from the military so veterans’ claims are completed accurately, completely, fairly, and quickly - and without endless appeals.

2. Only half of the veterans diagnosed with PTSD by VA receive disability compensation for PTSD from VA. VCS believes this is unacceptable.  While some claims may be pending or on appeal, this discrepancy between diagnosed patients and granted claims for PTSD warrants further review by Congress.  In order to cut red tape, VCS is fighting for a "presumption of service connection" for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans diagnosed with PTSD by the military, VA or a private doctor based on studies showing near-universal exposure to combat trauma to nearly all of the 1.7 million U.S. service members deployed to the two wars.

In a closely related matter, the Army Times wrote an excellent article about the research conducted by Veterans for Common Sense.  VCS identified enormous and disturbing discrepancies in disability activity among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans when comparing veterans from the National Guard and Reserve with veterans from Active Duty: http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/11288. 

As a result of our research and analysis, Congress asked VA to investigate the discrepancy and how it can be resolved.

Veterans for Common Sense developed a Freedom of Information Act program to determine the facts about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. VCS requests official government reports and documents that are otherwise not released by the government.  Then VCS posts them at our web site, shares them with Congress and distributes them to the press.  Our FOIA research has been used in Congressional testimony, in the book, “The Three Trillion Dollar War,” and for several news articles.

VA Fact Sheet: Impact of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

Updated October 14, 2008

Veteran Patients Reach Nearly 350,000; Claims Top 300,000

Chart #1, Department of Defense Deployments to War Zones

Chart #2, Veterans Health Administration (VHA)

Chart #3, Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)