VA Confirms 1 in 4 Terror War Vets Claims Disability

After over nine months of denying they existed, records confirming that one in four veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are filing disability claims have been released by the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The records were released by the VA in response to a FOIA request for documents filed in January 2006 by George Washington University’s National Security Archive.

According to the National Security Archive, one of the just-released VA reports dated Jan. 30, 2006, confirms that more than 150,000 deployed Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) veterans, out of more than 560,000 veterans of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), filed disability compensation and pension benefits claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration.

According to the veteran’s advocacy group Veterans for America, the VA’s reports understate the potential future human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on current trends, the group estimates that as many as 400,000 disability claims could be filed by the 1.6 million active duty and reserve service members deployed in the Global War on Terrorism.

Also See:
Bush Administration Planning Four More Years of Iraq War (US Liberals)
Iraq War Results & Statistics as of October 4, 2006 (US Liberals)
Operation Homecoming: The War in Their Words (US Politics)