ANOTHER COST OF THE IRAQ WAR

There are no comparable statistics for other wars but we can feel confidant that the stop-loss orders and repeated deployments have made the situation worse.

Soldiers' divorce rates up sharply
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
Wed Jun 8, 7:03 AM ET


The number of active-duty soldiers getting divorced has been rising sharply with deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The trend is severest among officers. Last year, 3,325 Army officers' marriages ended in divorce - up 78% from 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion, and more than 3 1/2 times the number in 2000, before the Afghan operation, Army figures show. For enlisted personnel, the 7,152 divorces last year were 28% more than in 2003 and up 53% from 2000. During that time, the number of soldiers has changed little.

Dennis Orthner, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has studied military families for 28 years, says he isn't surprised by the rise in divorces. "If the numbers are right, then we have more to worry about than just fighting a war," he says. "We're trying to fight a war with families that are struggling, and that's a real challenge."