Number-Crunching On Veterans Day
President Obama and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery (Getty Images)
911
The number of U.S. soldiers who have died in the war in Afghanistan.
2,266
The number of veterans under the age of 65 who died in 2008 because they were uninsured.
4,365
The number of U.S. soldiers who have died in the Iraq war.
4,434
The number of U.S. soldiers wounded in action in the war in Afghanistan.
31,557
The number of U.S. soldiers wounded in action in the Iraq war.
131,000
The number of homeless veterans in America.
425,000
The number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans treated by the VA since 9/11.
3,300,000 (3.3 million)
The number of U.S. veterans who receive disability.
24,000,000 (24 million)
The number of veterans in America.
3,700,000,000 (3.7 billion)
The cost of the Veterans Health Care Bill seeking to expand mental health coverage for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans that has been blocked by one senator, Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn (R), since May because Coburn believes the funding doesn’t exist.
930,000,000,000 (930 billion)
The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan thus far.
Filed under: Afghanistan War, Department of Veterans Affairs, General Eric Shinseki, Iraq War Veterans, Military Veterans, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, The Iraq War, US Armed Forces, VA, Veterans Day, Veterans Disability, War Casualties
Is our Nobel Peace Prize winning president going to do something about the wars for the rest of his term? I was expecting “hope” and “change” when I voted for him.
You can’t leave Afghanistan in shambles like we did the first time. Blame Bush for his lack of effort in Afghanistan and re-routing everything to the disaster known as Iraq. Obama’s in a catch-22 situation that wasn’t of his making. (Why anyone wanted to be president
at this time is beyond me.) We’re all gonna suffer for this, but the U.S. insisted on invading 2 fronts, made the mess, now we gotta clean it up. Period.
With regard to Afghanistan – it is either a worth a prolonged and costly investment of lives and money or it isn’t. http://www.icasualties.org/OEF/ http://costofwar.com/ Either way, Obama has to make a decision. It wasn’t like he didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he ran for president.