At least 6256 US veterans took their own lives in 2005, at an average of 17 a day, according to figures broadcast last night. Former servicemen are more than twice as likely than the rest of the population to commit suicide.
Such statistics compare to the total 3863 US military deaths in Iraq since the invasion in 2003 -- an average of 2.4 a day, according to the website icasualties.org.
The figures came as the US backed down on its policy of forcing diplomatic staff to serve in Iraq. Three foreign service officers who signed up for the last of the 48 vacancies had won tentative approval, officials said.
Once the appointments were approved -- a decision was due last night -- the State Department would announce an end to the enforcement policy. But the policy could return if the current crop of volunteers did not pan out.
"We're reserving the option," department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Three foreign service personnel have been killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003.
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Robert Gates yesterday said that unless the US Congress passed funding for the Iraq war within days, he would direct the Army and Marine Corps to prepare plans to lay off employees and terminate contracts early next year.
Mr Gates said he did not have the money or the flexibility to move funding around to cover the costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There is a misperception that this department can continue funding our troops in the field for an indefinite period of time through accounting manoeuvres. This is a serious misconception," Mr Gates said at the Pentagon.
Now, he said, he was faced with the task of preparing to cease operations at army bases by mid-February, and to lay off about 100,000 Defence Department employees and an equal number of civilian contractors.
Similar moves would have to be made by the marines a month later, he said.
Mr Gates said he could transfer about $US3.7billion ($4.1billion), just one week's worth of war expenses.
Away from Iraq and Afghanistan, the tragedy continues. The rate of suicides among veterans prompted claims that the US was suffering from a "mental health epidemic" -- often linked to post-traumatic stress.
CBS News claimed the figures represented the first attempt to conduct a nationwide count of veteran suicides.
The tally was reached by collating suicide data from individual states for veterans and the general population from 1995.
The suicide rate among Americans as a whole was 8.9 per 100,000, but the level among veterans was at least 18.7.
That figure rose to a minimum of 22.9 among veterans aged 20 to 24 -- almost four times the non-veteran average for people of the same age.
There are 25 million veterans in the US, 1.6 million of whom served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Not everyone comes home from the war wounded, but the bottom line is nobody comes home unchanged," said Paul Rieckhoff, a former marine and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America.
A separate study published last week shows that US military veterans make up a quarter of homeless people in the US, even though they represent just 11 per cent of the adult population.
Younger soldiers are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens after completing tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Times, AP http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22771092-2703,00.html
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