Our vets deserve better
Re: Deaths of three Afghan vets raise new concerns, Nov. 30.
As Canadians, we have always had reason to be proud of our military. In Afghanistan our men and women stepped up and acquitted themselves with absolute distinction on the world stage. Canada’s contribution, by ratio of troops deployed against population, ranked as the eighth-highest of the fifty nations supporting the NATO/ ISAF mission. More remarkable is that when ranked by military spending, as a percentage of GDP, Canada scored at the opposite end of the scale at 120th worldwide. We tied with Latvia, Burkina Faso and Kazakhstan.
Now that most of our troops are back it is deeply disturbing to learn this week of the deaths of yet three more Canadian soldiers on home soil. This news is tragic and is evidence that there were no lessons learned from the loss of our son to suicide in 2008.
Despite the constantly recycled Media Response Lines which suggest supposed goldplated medical care for ill or injured soldiers, our government, and by extension our military, have not yet made prevention of soldier suicide a priority.
We hear that the medical system is doing more, providing more. I would absolutely hope so, but the burgeoning rates of Operational Stress Injuries have far outstripped the military’s efforts to assist these injured soldiers. In Afghanistan our men and women, by any standard, did more with less. Our troops went whenever and wherever they were sent, and they always gave their best. Now they are deserving of our best efforts.
Research is showing brain scan evidence of physical damage to the brain in sufferers of PTSD. This is a bona fide injury! Why then are any of our troops still made to feel a very “real” stigma in seeking help? I have heard it said that putting your hand up for help is akin to putting one foot towards the exit door. Why is our government reluctant or unwilling to offer them full and complete medical and financial support? I am left to wonder if the answer is simply to be found in accounting ledgers. We have funding for massive military procurements so there must be a little more in there somewhere that could be redirected to take care of our most important asset of all — our troops!
Just as it is cheaper to service or repair a car than to discard and replace it, I am sure we would save many millions of dollars in recruitment and training costs by helping injured veterans rather than replacing them. The “human” cost cannot be measured and soldiers do not somehow become arbitrarily disposable. If supported, many can and will become stronger for having been tested and then made whole again.
The clichéd definition of insanity is to do something repeatedly and expect a different result. We need now to be doing something differently. We cannot continue to lose our men and women to suicide. I am quite certain other families would agree with me when I suggest to Defence Minister Rob Nicholson and Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino it is just not good enough to offer up condolences instead of treatment and support.
I am proud of Canada’s tradition as a peacekeeper nation but I am becoming ashamed of those who fail to help our injured soldiers. The failure to provide better treatment for the injured is nothing short of a betrayal.
Our condolences to the families of all the fallen.
SHAUN FYNES,
Victoria, B.C.