Reply #3: The CBS report seems to assume [View All]

that the suicide rate among veterans that haven't served in Iraq--in fact, of all veterans--is magically 0%.

Just as we have to subtract something like the number of non-hostile deaths per year in the military, normalized for the number of people actually serving, before the non-hostile death toll from Iraq is meaningful and says something about Iraq, so we also have to remove the number of expected suicides from the total count before we get a suicide rate that says something about Iraq. The number should also be adjusted for sex, age, and ethnicity; if suicide.org is correct, not only is the obvious difference in male/female suicide rates pertinent, but also differences by age cohort and ethnicity.

In other words: It's the differential, not the absolute number, that is important.

Of course, that assumes that CBS has good numbers. Until they're actually examined and shown to be fact-based, they're a claim. We dismiss academics' claims when they're relevant to the "other" side of a partisan argument and haven't been subject to independent review, and I think critical thinking is apolitical and non-partisan. I didn't watch the show, and if there was independent review of CBS's sources and confirmation that the methodology and sources used were solid, or the conclusions entailed, I'd like to know.