from The Independent, Saturday 8 November 2008
Remember the living, too
......Remembrance Sunday remains among the best-observed and most respected dates in the national calendar. With increased British military involvement in Afghanistan and the continuing – and far more contentious – engagement in Iraq, this country again has thousands of servicemen and women on active duty overseas. And with combat, inevitably, come casualties. As the numbers of the fallen in more recent wars has mounted, so the Royal British Legion has reported rising sales of poppies: it has supplied a record 40 million for sale this year, and 750,000 miniature crosses. A glimpse of the streets of our towns and cities suggests that wearing a poppy is at least as widespread as it ever was.
In this modest respect, the so-called military covenant between the armed forces and civilian Britain would seem to be in good shape. Yet the treatment accorded to the new generation of veterans and their families falls far short of what they should expect. Even if the most glaring equipment failures in the field have been largely remedied, housing for many military families remains execrable, and promises of improvement have mostly remained just promises. But it is the response to the injured – both immediate and longer term – where the inadequacies are seen at their starkest.
The nature of modern warfare and recent medical advances mean that many more injured soldiers survive. Yet all too often they must wait their turn with the civilian population; the very particular circumstances of their injuries may be disregarded; mental health provision remains a poor relation. The answer may be separate, specialised units, rather than the completely separate hospitals of the past, but returning servicemen and women deserve much better than they are getting. A government that sees fighting foreign wars as a national duty must appreciate that the cost extends far beyond the battlefield.
Leading article: Remember the living, too - Leading Articles, Opinion - The Independent
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