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Two years after an Army specialist saw half his platoon torn apart in Iraq, he hanged himself in a California backyard. In June, the Army and National Guard recorded 32 suicides, the highest number ever in one month. But his death isn't in any military report, because the specialist was a veteran when he took his life.
The nation needs to recognize that veterans aren't included in direct war expenditures either, including our nation's $700 billion defense budget, which already surpasses that of all other countries combined. While it is fiscally impossible to double this year's defense budget, we are incurring a future war debt of that size with little public debate. I refer to our solemn obligation to provide health care and other benefits to the men and women who have served in the military since 2001.
