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According to the IB Times, 900,000 troops have been injured in the wars in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They claim there have been that many troops treated at Veterans hospitals through December of 2012.

So is this number true? If a troop is treated at a veterans hospital, does that necessarily mean they were injured, or could it be a precautionary measure?

This statistic is surprising to me because I had been following the numbers of troops who were "wounded" which appears to be around 50 thousand. I imagine that wounded is just a term meaning a particularly severe form of injury.

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    The VA administers more than just battlefield issues. As written I think it means something like 1 in 3(?) returning veterans has visited a hospital for any reason.
    – user36688
    Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 21:15

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The most recent data is:

•Approximately 61 percent (1,189,709) of all separated OEF/OIF/OND Veterans have used VA health care since October 1, 2001.

•Between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015, a total of 723,143 of these Veterans accessed VA health care.

•The frequency and percent of the three most common diagnoses were: musculoskeletal ailments (735,582 or 61.8 percent); symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions (conditions that do not have an immediately obvious cause or isolated laboratory test abnormalities) (690,869 or 58.1 percent); and mental disorders (685,540 or 57.6 percent). A Veteran can have more than one diagnosis.

Abbreviations: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and New Dawn (OND)

These statics do not include Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

The older reports are also available at the linked site. The 900,000 number was correct at the time, but it is only OEF/OIF/OND veterans, not other Iraq veterans, and it includes any who used VA health care. It doesn't mean they were necessarily injured in a war.

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  • Was that cause of the weather of that areas?
    – money-printer
    Commented Dec 7, 2016 at 13:10
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    @Sadiq I don't think so. These are just people in the United States who are veterans of those operations who go to the Veterans Administration (VA) for any type of health care. Over 6 million veterans a year go to the VA for health care, so there is no indication that the 1 million from OEF/OIF/OND is unusual. It's a mistake to say the 1 million were injured in those conflicts.
    – DavePhD
    Commented Dec 7, 2016 at 13:36
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    @Sadiq it includes for example veterans who go to the hospital for a broken leg they got in a traffic accident after returning home, or a bad case of food poisoning.
    – jwenting
    Commented Dec 8, 2016 at 8:17

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