Remembering the invisible wounds of war
As we prepare for the American presidential election results to unravel on Tuesday, the threads of history will simultaneously and equally claim our attention.
As Remembrance Day approaches, Ottawa’s iconic Peace Tower appears both strong and fragile during the evening light show. Delicate, falling poppies, superimposed on the 98-metre-high column, stream gently down the facade. The poppies symbolize our grief and sorrow for those who have been physically lost or wounded in times of war.
Yet, is our same compassion just as evident for those who have been emotionally and mentally lost while serving our country? Too often lately, there have been reports of soldier suicides, post deployment.
The link between mental health and military missions is often difficult to assess, but Waiting for the Light, a new book by former Lt.-Gen. and Senator Roméo Dallaire, reminds us not all wounds are visible. Emotional wounds can be inflicted by horrendous sights and sounds, just as physical wounds are inflicted by bullets and bombs.
Dallaire, who led the 1994 UN peacekeeping force during the Rwandan genocide suffered dreadfully from sights and sounds. About 800,000 people were slaughtered by ethnic Hutu extremists while the global community, represented by the UN, was paralyzed in indecision, ignorance and/or wilful blindness.
The story of Dallaire’s battle with posttraumatic stress disorder is a jolting reminder of two intertwined policy issues the Liberal government must manage in the near future.
The first issue is the mandate of a future peacekeeping missions. Keeping the peace in any conflict zone these days is widely seen as a misnomer. Dallaire witnessed that reality first hand as he dealt with extremism, lack of resources, an uncaring bureaucracy and logistical nightmares.
However, the issue that dominates the book is that of mental health, which our soldiers may suffer as a result of their service.
Using the analogy of the famous Coleridge poem, the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Dallaire explains the compulsion to tell his tragic story over and over again, each time, reopening the wounds. Feeling guilty that he lived while others died, he returned to Canada in 1994 to find a closed door. In spite of some individual concern, no one really wanted to hear the awful stories and no one had the skills or the knowledge to reach out to help him.
Burying himself in around-the-clock work, writing books, giving speeches and testimonies at international tribunals, and very seriously contemplating suicide, Dallaire literally wandered from a military battlefield to the political battlefield of the Senate.
He eventually finds some respite at the Kennedy School’s Carr Centre for Human Rights and now perhaps a resting place with his research and tremendous advocacy on the issue of child soldiers.
Fortunately, the Trudeau government was able to have his advice as he accompanied Harjit Sajjan, the minister of defence on a recent fact-finding African mission.
Carefully and eloquently outlining his own very brutal struggle with mental demons, Dallaire traces the evolution of our understanding of PTSD over the years. Initially known as “shell shock” or “battle fatigue” for soldiers who had trouble functioning after returning from war, the symptoms were not easy to identify. Individuals sometimes were not aware that they were injured.
Psychiatric research has evolved since 1994. Doors that were closed to Dallaire yesterday would likely be open today.
The 2015 mandate letters of both the minster of veterans affairs and the minister of defence underscore the need to develop a suicide-prevention strategy for Canadian Armed Forces personnel and veterans.
Additionally, the minister of veterans affairs is charged with the creation of a new centre of excellence with a specialization in mental health and PTSD for both veterans and first responders.
Awareness has improved but as we deploy up to 600 of our soldiers to an international mission, the government must ensure it can deliver help if needed, both on the ground, and afterwards, at home.
On this Remembrance Day, we will grieve those we lost and those terribly wounded. But let’s also remember when our soldiers come home, they don’t come alone. They come with memories and their invisible wounds.