At least 121 members of the US Army committed suicide last year. A new Army study found more than a quarter of those -- about 34 -- did so while serving a tour of duty in Iraq, an increase from 27 in Iraq the previous year, according to the preliminary figures. The report also showed an increase in the number of attempted suicides and self-injuries -- some 2,100 in 2007 compared to less than 1,500 the previous year and less than 500 in 2002.
As I showed in a recent investigative report, many of these service members kill themselves after being denied psychiatric care from the Pentagon, many after multiple, tours to the war zone.
But even these statistics are only the tip of the iceberg. They don’t include "accidents" which are really suicides, service-members who "commit suicide by cop" and they don’t include veterans, who kill themselves after being discharged from the military.
A CBS news investigation in November found that 120 veterans kill themselves every week; or over 6,000 per year. CBS asked all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records for veterans and non-veterans, and found that veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide.
