Canadian Casualties In Afghanistan

Unlike the UK and US militaries, the Canadian military has a policy of restricting information on the number of soldiers wounded or injured while serving in Aghanistan.

The policy of releasing the number of injured soldiers only once a year — on Dec. 31 — has obscured the intensity of fight facing Canadian soldiers, as well as the nature of the sometimes life-altering injuries. It has also given Canadians back home a mental buffer against the numbing realities of war — soldiers who fight hard also get hurt.

Over seven months, 52 soldiers were wounded in action and another 24 suffered “non-battle injuries.” Seventeen soldiers died in combat and two others are listed only as “deaths,” language typically used in the case of suicides or when the cause of death is undetermined. The good news in the numbers is that 34 of the 52 soldiers wounded in action were able to return to duty.

The normally secret records, which are produced in Afghanistan and circulated throughout the defence department, show the pace of war is relentless. In just over one week at the end of May 2008, one soldier is injured when a Light Armoured Vehicle rolls over; four are injured when a suicide bomber blows up his car; one soldier takes ill; two others suffered unspecified “non-battle injuries;” three are hurt in a “probable” mine strike and one suffers a gunshot wound.

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The fact that injuries are kept out of the public eye illustrates how unaware Canadians are of the price being paid by soldiers in Afghanistan, said Senator Colin Kenny.

“In death, you hope it’s fast and very little suffering. But the suffering of the wounded goes on and on and on,” said Kenny, the former chair of the Senate defence committee.

“All you have to do is go out to the hospital to meet them. You’re looking at people with half their face gone or their mouth is wired up and their ankles are broken because of the force of the IED,” he said.

In addition, some soldiers complain that hiding the wounded prevents them from being recognized and celebrated for their physical sacrifices on behalf of Canada. In hospitals across the country, they are suffering and recovering alone and in silence, something that can contribute to their frustration, breed resentment and lead to mental health problems.

Defence officials defend the secrecy, saying it’s vital to safeguard operational security and keep insurgents in the dark about the toll their attacks are taking on Canadian troops.

But critics mock that reasoning, noting that allies like Britain and the United States, release their own tallies of wounded troops on a more timely basis — sometimes weekly.

“The lack of transparency here is something that I simply don’t understand,” Kenny said.

By: Shelldrake