Report: 121 Veterans Linked to Killings

Northwest Indiana Times ^ | January 13, 2008

[KeyLargo]

Report: 121 Veterans Linked to Killings

Date posted online: Sunday, January 13, 2008

NEW YORK - At least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have committed a killing or been charged in one in the United States after returning from combat, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said it also logged 349 homicides involving all active-duty military personnel and new veterans in the six years since military action began in Afghanistan, and later Iraq. That represents an 89-percent increase over the previous six-year period, the newspaper said.

About three-quarters of those homicides involved Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, the newspaper said. The report did not illuminate the exact relationship between those cases and the 121 killings also mentioned in the report.

The newspaper said its research involved searching local news reports, examining police, court and military records and interviewing defendants, their lawyers and families, victims' families and military and law enforcement officials.

Defense Department representatives did not immediately respond to a telephone message early Sunday. The Times said the military agency declined to comment, saying it could not reproduce the paper's research.

A military spokesman, Lt. Col. Les Melnyk, questioned the report's premise and research methods, the newspaper said. He said it aggregated crimes ranging from involuntary manslaughter to murder, and he suggested the apparent increase in homicides involving military personnel and veterans in the wartime period might reflect only "an increase in awareness of military service by reporters since 9/11."

Neither the Pentagon nor the federal Justice Department track such killings, generally prosecuted in state civilian courts, according to the Times.

The 121 killings ranged from shootings and stabbings to bathtub drownings and fatal car crashes resulting from drunken driving, the newspaper said. All but one of those implicated was male.

About a third of the victims were girlfriends or relatives, including a 2-year-old girl slain by her 20-year-old father while he was recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq.

A quarter of the victims were military personnel. One was stabbed and set afire by fellow soldiers a day after they all returned from Iraq.

Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com

[KeyLargo]

As usual MSM has created another report on the evils of the U.S. military and the Iraq war. The NY slimes is just going back over the same anti Vietnam War template blaming alleged PTSD as the reason for why servicemen commit violent crimes. When most of the time it is nothing more than a crime committed by a person who would have been a violent criminal no matter whether he had been in uniform of not.

January 13, 2008 War Torn Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles By DEBORAH SONTAG and LIZETTE ALVAREZ

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/us/13vets.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

also debunked with stats here:
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1200191106.shtml

“What is so much incredibly worse about this story, however, is not the bias and not the predetermined outcome. It’s the blatant disregard for the facts, which fly in the face of this story and destroy the myth of US soldier as war-haunted homicidal maniac.
From the October 1, 2001 start of the Afghanistan war, that’s about 26,000 troops/month. To date (Jan 2008) that would give about 1.99 million.

That means that the NY Times 121 murders represent about a 7.08/100,000 rate.

Now the numbers on deployed troops are probably high - fewer troops from 2001 - 2003; I’d love a better number if someone has it.

But for initial purposes, let’s call the rate 10/100,000, about 40% higher than the calculated one.

Now, how does that compare with the population as a whole?

Turning to the DoJ statistics, we see that the US offender rate for homicide in the 18 - 24 yo range is 26.5/100,000.For 25 - 34, it’s 13.5/100,000.
In other words, the homicide rate for returning military personnel is dramatically lower — one-half to less than one-third as much as the general population. The entire thesis of the story is not only false but portrays the exact opposite of the truth!”

[Jeff Chandler]

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the White House would actually respond to these slanders and defend the military?

[television is just wrong]

yeah it would, but somehow it isn’t happening....

[Albert Guérisse]

There have always been veterans committing homicide or suicide. Like the comments suggest, the actual rate is lower than the general population.

But you don't sell newspapers telling the truth.

[onedoug]

Peace in Israel, you know. Legacy.

[digger48]

Just the Times p!ssing on our soldiers.

again.