V.A. is aware of 4,194 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who died after leaving the military. More than half died within two years of discharge.
As fighting and casualties in Afghanistan's war reached an all-time high, U.S. soldiers and Marines there reported plunging morale and the highest rates of mental health problems in five years.
"We built a tower and the tower's based on putting (III Corps and Fort Hood Commander Lt. Gen. Donald Campbell Jr.) accountable to all the suicides that are happening at Fort Hood and to all the soldiers not getting the proper (mental health) treatment that they need," said Kyle Wesolowski, an Iraq war veteran who recently left the Army with a conscientious objector discharge.
Following death of Bin Laden, a group of bipartisan politicians presented legislation for an exit strategy from Afghanistan
As 46 soldiers from the 101st Airborne return from Afghanistan, the death of Bin Laden is not a top priority.
The conditions under which the WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning is being detained in military prison have vastly improved in the wake of a sustained campaign against his earlier treatment, which some said amounted to torture.
Author Sebastian Junger remembers his collaborator Tim Hetherington, journalist and director of Restrepo, who was recently killed in Libya. He also discusses the complexity of covering war and the soldiers who fight.
From Jose Vasquez, Executive Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War:
Sunday night IVAW learned with the rest of the nation that Osama Bin Laden was killed and his body captured by a team of U.S. Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In light of our resolution condemning the occupation of Afghanistan adopted in 2009, we have followed this important news closely and want to share our perspective with supporters, elected officials, policymakers, the press, and the public at large.
As we enter into the 8th year of war with Iraq and have already passed the 9th year mark with the war with Afghanistan, the costs of these wars are adding up. There is the economic cost, which has reached the trillion dollar mark at an estimated cost of 2.5 to 4.6 trillion dollars [1]. Yet, the human cost to our troops has been skyrocketing as well, and not just those dying in combat but those who have taken their own lives when they returned home.
Protests throughout Iraq have been calling for political reform and an end to violence against demonstrators.
