War Is Not Normal

Yesterday, I was talking to a soldier. He was [and still is] a young marine; courteous, affable, genuine, a man who could only leave behind a good impression of British youth whenever he was abroad. He has just come back from six months in Afghanistan. I asked - as anyone would - what it was really like in that God forsaken country. As I expected, he had little that was positive to say about our involvement and, like many of us over here in Britain, he clearly had no idea why they were there. He came to work-out in our gym on a casual basis and as I watched him resting between sets, I got the impression that he was thinking about things far away from this gym.

Is morale among soldiers high? It was my impression that it probably is. Nothing unifies groups of people more than an impression that no one is on their side, that they must make their own objectives and that if they are to survive, they have to stick together. No soldier can believe that the politicians that have dumped them in Afghanistan are on their side and the expressed objectives of this military intervention change with the weather. I don't think that the PM wants these troops in Afghanistan any more than the rest of us but he has a problem with no solution that has been left him by Tony Blair. It should be clear to all our soldiers that Joe Public in the UK is 100% on their side but we do not want use up any more lives fighting a pointless war.

I think the worst thing for the soldiers in Afghanistan is the injuries. Death is one thing; every soldier knows that is a risk of the job. But seeing on a daily basis, comrades seriously injured, with missing limbs, brain and other organ damage, hit by snipers and improvised explosive devices [IEDs] can only begin to be bearable if the men believe that they are fighting for something important and important specifically to Britain. It must be soul-destroying to witness fit and healthy, very young men suddenly blown off their feet, suffering severe pain and trauma, their bodies crippled, their minds embraced by the real horror of war. These men will need every reserve of mental strength in their bodies to face up to the futures that lie before them. The sights these soldiers have witnessed will haunt them for the rest of their lives. We know that soldiers have difficulty adjusting to civilian life even if they appear to have returned uninjured. The mental scars may be hidden but we owe it to every man and woman leaving military service to ensure that they can return to normal lives. War is not normal. It is an aberration; the resort of megalomaniacs and the deranged. It is not acceptable to ask men and women to suffer the ravages of war and then to carry the burden for the rest of their lives.

Yesterday was also the on hundredth time that the town of Wootton Bassett has stopped work and the population lined the streets as more dead soldiers return from Afghanistan. And still no minister has deigned to attend any repatriation. I suppose that now they can no longer even acknowledge the shame of their absence.

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