VETERANS chaplain Deacon Gary Stone says he is providing pastoral support to hundreds of Australian ex-soldiers experiencing deep pain and anguish as the Taliban seizes control of Afghanistan.
Deacon Stone founder of the Veterans Care Association in the Brisbane archdiocese says he has been inundated by calls from veterans in distress as they watch the dramatic TV coverage of the fall of the capital Kabul.
“All of them are grieving for the people of Afghanistan,” he said.
“When they were over there our soldiers saw ordinary people caught up in this terrible conflict. And so they grieve for them (and what could now unfold).”
Deacon Stone, himself a Middle East veteran, works with a team of volunteers who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor and other conflict zones, supporting a veteran community of about 120,000 – ex servicemen and women and their families across south east Queensland.
Two decades of war in Afghanistan has left many veterans grappling with PTSD and mental health issues, years after returning home.
The rapid departure of the last Allied troops, the capitulation of the Afghan military and Taliban’s seizure of power has stunned the veteran community.
“Those (veterans) who had close friends who were wounded or killed they are particularly grieving – trying to make sense of ‘was it all worth it’,” Deacon Stone said.
“They don’t want to think that their mates died in vain over there.
“Separate to the war there is starvation in Afghanistan, there’s a shortage of water and food, and the Taliban are not bringing anything to the people.
“So they will go back into the dark ages.”
Deacon Stone said veterans were grieving particularly for Afghan nationals who worked with Australian servicemen and women and who were now in real danger of Taliban retribution.
“Anyone who was working for us will die. There will be no trials, no inquiries. Someone will just shoot them in the head,” he said.
Deacon Stone said it was “negligently irresponsible by our government” that while Australia still had troops on the ground in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar that efforts were not made to airlift Afghan interpreters and other staff who aided and protected Australian soldiers over many years.
“We could have facilitated their evacuation over the last nine months,” Deacon Stone said.
“Today, I could name three veterans who have said ‘I told my interpreter that we would get him out and we knew that they would not survive if we left’.”
The war in Afghanistan followed the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, at a time when the United States and its allies temporarily drove the Taliban from power in order to deny al-Qaeda a safe base of operations in Afghanistan
Today marks Vietnam Veterans’ Day – a commemoration of another long war in which Australians served alongside American and other allied troops.
Vietnam Veterans’ Day marks the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan in 1966.
The day remembers the sacrifices of those who died and says thank you to almost 60,000 Australians who served during the 10 years of involvement in the Vietnam War.
