The human cost of war is hidden from us

The human cost of war is hidden from us

Statistics for the number wounded in the line of duty have been buried. We need to know more
Magnus Linklater

Our friend Billy came back from Afghanistan rather earlier than planned. A Scots Royal Marine, he was on patrol in Sangin province when his Jackal armoured car hit a roadside bomb and was blown apart. Both his legs have been badly broken, but he has been told he is not going to lose them. “I'm definitely going to enroll in the Paralympics,” he joked from Selly Oak, the military hospital in Birmingham where all our serious casualties go. The reality is that months of long and painful recuperation lie ahead of him. As to the long-term mental effect, that can only be guessed at.

As Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, VC, pointed out so forcibly at the weekend, the war wounded returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, however well cared for initially, are too often left to fend for themselves later - the forgotten victims of an endless conflict. Beharry was hailed for his bravery, but the scars may be with him for life. “I am learning to live with it,” he said. “Everyone experiences combat stress differently. But we are all linked, we all suffer the same problem in different ways.” His charge was that the Ministry of Defence provides inadequate aftercare - he called it “disgraceful”. But perhaps too he meant that for every soldier who dies there are others whose suffering we hear little about.

The death of a soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq is still accorded a mention on the news. The statistics about the wounded are buried. You can find them on the Ministry of Defence's website. But they do not command the headlines. Death is different. British soldiers killed in action - 148 of them now, since 2001 - are returned home with full military honours. Flags fly at half-mast, and the Union Flag is draped over the coffins as they are carried in a slow march off the plane at Brize Norton.
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