A necessary inquiry into veterans’ deaths

[Draggingtree]

Austin American Statesman :

 

Posted: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012

 

A necessary inquiry into veterans’ deaths

 

 

By Editorial Board

 

A team of American-Statesman reporters spent six months investigating how hundreds of Texas veterans have died since coming home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This month, more than two months after the results of the Statesman investigation were published, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it will study the deaths of veterans nationwide.

 

The VA’s decision to begin its own inquiry into the deaths of the veterans it serves, past due but welcome nonetheless, corrects the government’s failure to fully track the causes of death of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. We hope the effort to compile a comprehensive study of veterans’ deaths leads to a more complete picture of veterans’ struggles as they readjust to civilian life, and that a better understanding of those struggles will help prevent so many tragically early deaths.

 

The three-day American-Statesman series,