From a reader:

Jonah, One small issue with your analysis. Yes, the current suicide rate among young veterans is approximately the same as the same general population age/sex group. However, the military had taken significant strides early in this decade to get the military suicide rates well below the general population age/sex rate. The CBS statistics show that the military rate is close or the same as the general population. (So, your analysis saying this is what you’d expect is correct) But what they are unable to articulate is that the military has (in the past) done a great job of reducing its rate below the general pop number and is now losing ground in this fight.

And from another reader:

From the CNN Article.
“Rathbun adjusted the rates of suicide for age, gender and any
potential error in the gathering of the raw data by the states.”
Seriously.
And what is the surprise that veterans commit suicide more? They
live with a lot more than most. There’s no reason to unleash the
attack dogs on the survey.

Me: For the record, I don’t think I unleashed attack dogs on anything. I said there’s reason for skepticism but that whatever the rate is, it’s bad. I think I’ll stand by that position.