U.S. 'disability claims' from Iraq and Afghanistan reaches 245,034

The Pentagon officially reported 72,043 battlefield casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan through Jan. 5, 2008. In addition, VA hospitals and clinics have treated 263,909 unplanned patients from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. On top of that, VA reported 245,034 disability claims from veterans of the two wars. Those are some of the disturbing new statistics released by the group Veterans for Common Sense which gathered that data through use of the Freedom of Information Act (typical of the rest of its secrecy, the Bush Administration doesn't just release this information to the public as a matter of course).

For obvious reasons the spotlight is usually placed on figures that report the number of tragic deaths from the two conflicts. However as the above data shows, the number of non fatal casualties is staggering, 245,034 disability claims! The sheer volume of families affected by this conflict both in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. is beyond belief.