Biden’s claim that more Iraq/Afghanistan veterans have committed suicide than were killed in action

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Biden’s claim that more Iraq/Afghanistan veterans have committed suicide than were killed in action

Former Vice President Joe Biden made this claim during a health care town hall on August 23. (Sarah Cahlan/The Washington Post)

By Glenn Kessler
September 5, 2019 at 3:00 AM EDT

“More suicides per month in the U.S. military, returning vets, than people killed in action, by a long shot.”

The Washington Post recently detailed how the former vice president told a moving but false story about an incident in Afghanistan. While watching a clip of the lengthy monologue that led to this tale, we were struck by his claim that there are more suicides per month of returning veterans than those killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan — “by a long shot.”

This seemed an interesting subject for a fact check, though it turned out the data is sketchy and not especially clear. There’s also an added wrinkle — what did Biden, who is not especially precise in his phrasing, mean with his comment?

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/05/bidens-claim-that-more-iraqafghan-vets-have-committed-suicide-than-were-killed-action/?outputType=amp