no i'm saying all the medals and citations in the world won't stop the PTSD, the suicides, the struggle to connect with domestic reality, the transition from service of country to service of their own family, their own community ..
politics and medals doesn't sit well with me at all. I think it's hard enough to get cohesion in a large multi disciplined, highly specialised but totally command orientated organistion such as the defence force, without the pollies interfering and the publics emotions being triggered.. Our armed forces get paid, paid well.. they are not volunteering for the experience
Politicians could have interfered at the deployment point, that is where the politicians earn their money, but no, they are interfering now, after all the blood has been spilt and after all the collatoral damage has been inflicted
I just wish the Govt would somehow find the humility to admit they got it horribly wrong, apologise to the defence forces and put in place a more rigorous system whereby any deployment not in the immediate defence of Australia or Australian assets is basically a 'NO', with a guaranteed timeframe to ellapse before review..
The royal commission should be into the decision to deploy, to IRAQ and to AFGHANISTAN
