Support the Troops

    Exactly what the heck does that mean, support the troops? As far as I've seen it means that people are all for spending up to five bucks to put a ribbon on their car or house while young men and women are shipped of to die. People seem to want to support the troops when they are going of to die fighting for one cause or another but suddenly that support vanishes for all who make it back alive.                                       
        In Canada, we celebrate Remembrance Day. Its a day to honor the memory of those who perished while seemingly defending their loved ones. I think that is great, honoring those who were willing to give up their lives for us. Is just remembering them a sufficient way to honor them? I don't think so. I think that the very best way to honor them, in addition to remembering them, would be to treat those who made it home the way you would have wanted those who passed treated.

      The first step is realizing that American and Canadian troops alike are all brothers/sisters in arms. As allies they often fight side by side in conflict. Your service member who passed away may have passed away protecting mine. Don't you think that they would still want the surviving service member to be protected when they returned home?

        Many, many Canadian and American troops are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from debilitating disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The very people that deceased service members died trying to protect are now coming home with sever conditions that often times go untreated.

        In the situation with my husband and countless others, although he was diagnosed with sever PTSD, they were about to redeploy him into the war zone. What he needed and needs is treatment, not disregard for his life and the sacrifice he was willing to make. By putting injured people back into war zones the military is doing at least 3 potentially devastating things:

          1. They are showing how little value they place on the lives of the troops and how little they    care for them on any sort of personal level, the suicide rate for service members is quite high

          2. They are dishonoring the lives of those who died protecting their country and fellow service members by not properly caring for those who have survived, which often results in service members thinking 'What am I fighting for? No one cares if I live or die so why should I?'. 3. They are creating potentially dangerous and deadly situations on the war front by giving injured people guns, a suffering person often does not think clearly, this endangers not only civilians but also the other service members as well.

         The way the military seems to treat its troops really upsets me. It not only impacts the troops but also all the loved ones waiting at home. It results in the loss of unnecessary lives through careless actions of service member who question what the point of living is and through countless suicides. For those waiting at home it is so difficult to watch your service member suffer every day, wondering if they will have the resolve to make it through another day.

        So next Remembrance and Veterans Days lets not just make it a day to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Lets us stand up for the rights of those who came home. Let us demand proper treatment for our troops. Let us show the world what it really means to support the troops, not onto death alone but also onto life. Those who died were willing to fight for those who have come home, that they may live, now let us fight for those who have come home that they may continue to live. The two most important things they need are for:

1. NO INJURED TROOP TO BE REDEPLOYED UNLESS FULLY RECOVERED
2. COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL TREATMENT UNTIL FULLY RECOVERED