VA PREDICTS 330,000 VETS FROM iRAQ AND AGHANISTAN WILL BE TREATED BY 2009 AT A COST OF NEARLY $1.3 BILLION

We occasionally hear about the KIA (Killed in Action) from the Iraq war, but seldom do we hear about the number of injured from the war.

The most frequently cited figure is the 29,320 soldiers wounded in action in Iraq as of Thursday. But there have been 31,325 others treated for non-combat injuries and illness as of March 1.

It is also important to note the Pentagon, or Department of Defense (DoD), keeps two sets of books for the killed and injured from the Iraq war. The way the DoD juggles the figures is explained in a new book by Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard and an expert on budgeting and public finance whose newly published book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," was co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

This blogger has been reporting for two months how the DoD manipulates the KIA and wounded figures to make it appear not as bad as it really has been in Iraq.

Adding to the hell returning veterans of the war in Iraq are going through is the fact that many vets have to wait for months to get treatment from the Veterans Administration as their claims become stalled in bureaucratic red tape.

As we reported in another story Thursday, 60,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are suffering with PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorders.

Care for Injured Vets Raises Questions

By BRADLEY BROOKS – 20 hours ago

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j2oUYYnB7xtpN6eyOV0lmnjkTScwD8V83JFG1


BAGHDAD (AP) — The number of wounded soldiers has become a hallmark of the nearly 5-year-old Iraq war, pointing to both the use of roadside bombs as the extremists' weapon of choice and advances in battlefield medicine to save lives.

About 15 soldiers are wounded for every fatality, compared with 2.6 per death in Vietnam and 2.8 in Korea.

But with those saved soldiers comes a financial price — one veterans groups and others claim the government is unwilling to pay.

Those critics also say that the tens of thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq are part of a political numbers game, one they say undermines the medical system meant to care for them.

The most frequently cited figure is the 29,320 soldiers wounded in action in Iraq as of Thursday. But there have been 31,325 others treated for non-combat injuries and illness as of March 1.

"The Pentagon keeps two sets of books," said Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard and an expert on budgeting and public finance whose newly published book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," was co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

"It is important to understand the full number of casualties because the U.S. government is responsible for paying disability compensation and medical care for all our troops, regardless of how they were injured," Bilmes said.

Veterans Affairs predicts it will treat 330,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009 — a 14 percent increase over the 2008 estimate of 263,000 — at a cost of nearly $1.3 billion.

Click on link to read the full story.