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Friday, November 29, 2013

Soldier suicides ... the necessary evil?


What did you expect?  We send our young men and women to kill other human beings and we expect them to come back with their mental health intact?  Are they Muslim jihadists without a conscience that they can see all that gore and mayhem in the killing fields and then return to Canada and continue with life like nothing has happened?  Our politicians should be shipped to war fronts before sending out our young.

Jessica Murphy writing at QMI:
....The government's ability to help soldiers   with mental illness came under scrutiny for a second day after three Canadian Forces members apparently committed suicide this week.
Opposition parties targeted the Conservative government in question period Friday over whether it's doing enough to help struggling current and former soldiers.

NDP veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer said he hopes the investigations into the deaths - launched as part of regular procedure - would be completed soon.
It can take up to five years to complete an investigation, although the military says results are often released after a year.
"That's far too long. They should be able to work with these families very, very quickly to determine what happened and what can be done to prevent these in the future," Stoffer said.

Col. Rakesh Jetly, mental health advisor to the Canadian Forces surgeon general, called the apparent suicides "heartbreaking."
Jetly said the military expects the number of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder to increase at "a steady state" over the coming few years following the war in Afghanistan.
He also encouraged soldiers suffering from PTSD to seek help, but said the military is doing its utmost to offer necessary care and improve treatments.

Warrant Officer Michael McNeil was deployed overseas in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. He died at the Petawawa, Ont., military base on Nov. 27.
Master Cpl. William Elliott, a decorated combat veteran, went to Bosnia and Afghanistan. He died near the Shilo, Man., base on Nov. 25.
Master Bombardier Travis Halmrast, who was deployed to Afghanistan, also died on Nov. 25.

It's not the first time the military and national defence and veterans affairs departments have been criticized for failing soldiers struggling with combat-related mental illness........

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