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The plight of our vets

THE 1.8 MILLION American volunteers who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan represent a much smaller percentage of the U.S. population than those who fought in previous wars. When they return, these veterans and their families often find themselves out of sight and mind as they struggle to get benefits and treatments.

THE 1.8 MILLION American volunteers who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan represent a much smaller percentage of the U.S. population than those who fought in previous wars. When they return, these veterans and their families often find themselves out of sight and mind as they struggle to get benefits and treatments.

Even worse, some say, is a profound disconnect between the trauma of their experiences and coming back to a country in which the latest twists in "American Idol" get more media coverage than bombings in Baghdad.

But it's not only new veterans facing serious problems: wars long ended are still taking casualties. According to a report last week from the Department of Veterans Affairs, 18 U.S. veterans a day commit suicide: more than 6,000 men and women who escaped death at the hands of the enemy take their own lives each year. Last year, 98 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan killed themselves. The bulk of suicides apparently are by veterans who left the battlefield - physically, at least - decades ago.

These disturbing figures are mirrored by a dramatic rise - 24 percent - in the number of disability claims by veterans over the past seven years. The costs of compensation to about 3 million veterans has doubled to $34.3 billion in that period, according to an analysis by the Chicago Tribune. Most of the new claims came from veterans of Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. The increase is overwhelming the antiquated bureaucracy of the VA, which has a backlog of at least a half-million claims, making it even more difficult for "new" veterans to be served.

Delay in treatment is particularly dangerous, of course, when veterans are at risk of suicide, so outreach is critical. "We can't wait for them to come to the VA. The VA needs to go to them," U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., chairman of a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee looking into suicides, said last week.

In July 2007, the VA instituted a suicide-prevention hot line that now receives about 10,000 calls a month from current and former service members. (The number is 1-800-273-8255, press 1) The VA credits the hot line with stopping 7,000 veterans who were in the act of suicide from going through with it, and providing referrals, counseling and other help.

The new data show that the suicide rate is lower for veterans using VA health-care services, yet the VA has been curiously reluctant to reach out to veterans not currently under VA care - which is about two-thirds of them.

Two years ago, Mitchell pressured the VA to reverse a strange, self-imposed ban against advertising on TV. An affecting ad by the actor Gary Sinise, who played a disabled veteran in "Forrest Gump," was credited with increasing public awareness of the suicide-prevention hot line. But the ad stopped airing last fall and apparently no further TV outreach is planned before the end of the year. Mitchell had scheduled a hearing for last week to examine suicide-prevention outreach, but canceled it when the VA refused to provide the witnesses he had requested. He complained about an "emerging pattern of delays and non-compliance" from the department. If the hot line has averted 7,000 suicides, surely more lives would be saved the more veterans know about it.

This nation never calculates the price tag for caring for veterans before it sends soldiers off to fight. The "surge" in suicides reported last week reveals the upward trajectory of past and current wars' monetary and emotional costs. That doesn't absolve us from the responsibility for keeping faith with our veterans.