Veterans for Common Sense releases two Fact Sheets about the consequences of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, one for the Department of Defense (DoD), and another for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). 

The sources for our Fact Sheets are DoD, VA, and Harvard University.  VCS used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to obtain the reports.

Why are these new Fact Sheets important?  The DoD Fact Sheet reveals nearly 67,000 battlefield casualties for the two wars.  The VA Fact Sheet reveals more than 250,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans treated at VA hospitals since their return home from combat.

VCS provided the documents to Harvard University, and Professor Linda Bilmes used the documents to prepare her report on the estimated human and financial costs of the two wars.  Our goal in releasing our Fact Sheets is to show citizens, legislators, and the press the enormous and increasing costs of the two wars.

VCS believes these facts should be used instead of the incomplete statistics often provided by DoD and VA to mislead the public and otherwise conceal the cost of the two wars.  Currently, the ratio of killed to surviving battlefield casualties is more than 15 to one.  During World War I, the ratio was nearly one to one: for each death, only one service member was wounded, injured, or ill.

For VA, their hospitals and clinics treat 61 walking wounded, injured, and ill for each battlefield death.  Even though VCS requested suicide statistics from VA using FOIA, VA said they don't have any suicide statistics, even after widespread media reports about suicides on the battlefield and among returning combat veterans.

This means that our service members in the Iraq and Afghanistan war are surviving much more horrific blasts that would have instantly killes service members from earlier wars.  This high survival rate means many more casualties will need expensive medical care and disability compensation for the rest of their lives.

Both the New York Times and the Associated Press have reported on the misleading and incomplete statistics released by DoD and VA.

To view VA Fact Sheet, please click here

To view DoD Fact Sheet, please click here

To view the Harvard University report, please click here  

To view the Associated Press article, please click here 

To view the first New York Times article, please click here

To view the second New York Times article, please click here