And again the Associated Press shows why they're only real purpose is as part some absurd plot to commit genocide against trees. It's not the facts they got wrong, it's how they went about presenting those facts and in the conclusions drawn from their presentation that's fallacious at best, outright bullshit written to sell copies and to hell with the truth at worst. 

They're absolutely correct about the steep rise in number of claims filed, for example the 45% for veterans of the last tens years of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan vs only 21% for the first Gulf War back in 1990-1991.  Thing is, the Gulf War was a single theater conflict that combat operations lasted a total of 210 days, so comparing claims from that against claims from around a decade or so of combat operations across two theaters involving several times as many troops is just a little shady.

Simple math says that upwards of 225,000 troops deployed per year for ten years of sustained combat operations will have more casualties, and thus will produce more disability claims, then 500,000 troop deployed for 210 day of combat operations.

The other problem is while they get the facts they actual present right, they're also omitting other facts.  Examples here would be the number of ailments claimed by vets of the last ten years of operations vs the numbers for previous conflicts. They're correct that average number of ailments climbed being 8-9 and that over the last year or so that's climbed significantly.  They're also correct that the average for Vietnam vets is around 4.  What they're neglecting to mention is that thanks to the lobbying efforts of various veterans groups over the last 30 years the number of ailments that can be claimed for benefits has massively increased, and the criteria for being able to qualify for those benefits has been lowered.

Simple math says when you lower the bar to qualify for benefits while increasing the number of ailments that can be claimed that claims numbers will rise.

About the only thing they got right was that the real costs of Chimpus Caesar's "Kill-Brown-People-Palooza" won't be fully understood for decades to come.