Oz had highest proportion of Commonwealth soldiers killed in WW1, around 1.35% of the total population of 4.5 million. The RSL says of the 331,781 Oz soldiers serving in WW1 (about 8% of the total population) 60,284 died (about 1 in 5 or nearly 20%), and 152,284 wounded (about 1 in 2 or nearly 50%). Of course psychological damage isn't counted. It could easily have been 100% with very large numbers of soldiers very seriously effected with what we would now call PTSD. Alcohol was pretty much the only available treatment for war related stress since admitting to any form of mental illness would result in social exclusion. The suffering of families grieving the dead and trying to deal with the wounded was massive. Given the survivors were mostly young men the impact on their families would ripple across generations - until World War Two, which was slightly less devastating in numerical terms but turned into the multi generation Cold War proxy wars in Korea, Malaya, Indonesia and so on. (http://www.smh.com.au/comment/a-tribute-to-the-dead-of-world-war-i-20141110-11jkcx.html)
So have we developed a culture of avoiding wars and caring for it's (local) victims? No, we have created cultural spin to avoid examining the horrible and pervasive realities of wars and continued to minimally support it's local victims, returned soldiers and their families. It was recently reported that nearly three times as many returned soldiers have suicided than died during the ten year deployment to Afghanistan (http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2014/s4124785.htm). PTSD sufferers are being 'treated' with the anti psychotic Seroquel which keeps them quietish but doesn't approach the actual problem, which can be treated with intensive, live-in neurotherapy (the US Marines are doing it). The new Federal pay deal for the military, after years of haggling, increases pay less than the inflation rate, reduces holidays and conditions so that soldiers and their families are considerably worse off. (http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/defence-force-tribunal-approves-belowinflation-adf-pay-deal-20141103-11g4tr.html) Now it looks like the PM has rolled over to expected US requests and agreed to more troops against ISIS pretending the mission is not 'boots on the ground', which is hard to do when you are accompanying Iraqi soldiers on missions, but then jesuitical spin is Fedgov's speciality. (http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/11/australian-special-forces-moving-into-iraq-tony-abbott-says)
On Remembrance Day we should remember the sacrifice of the soldiers, the suffering of their families, and the massive damage to our society. We should also remember to despise the decades of pious spin and the reality that our society regards soldiers, in service and returned, as expendable.
