Constant wars and fight for territories in the third world today has led to an incumbent increase in allied countries coming forward and fighting for stability in the areas marked with violence, like Iraq and Afghanistan.
But a very threatening feature which has overshadowed these peace making strategies is the very human feature of sickness and affliction which has affected the troops in large numbers, and is leading to an increase in attrition rate of the troops. In the present situation, the number of military personnel inducted has considerably reduced and also the retention as compared to earlier data and reports.
Today, the recruitment for soldiers is becoming increasingly difficult and the troops are very explicitly facing “retention crisis” in the military. The difficulty in providing safety and other life sustaining arrangements to the troops has led to a large fragment of the battalions to fall sick and resign from the military. Under-funding and the lack of adequate measures to retain the soldiers have led to a major deadlock in the defense scenario.
The inability to recuperate from the long duty hours of exhaustion, life threatening dangers and long periods of abstained family lives has led to dissatisfaction and depressed mental states that have become an area of concern for the defense forces.
As Col Bob Stewart exclaims,
The fact is that they are knackered. The operational commitments are so great now that people - particularly in the infantry - have not been able to recoup and retrain.
“As a soldier you must be given the chance to rest otherwise you are exhausted. And if you are exhausted you are far more likely to get sick.
It should not be negated that peace negotiations and processes are difficult in turn and the people involved in these processes are also humans who can get affected by a number of things. In order to keep countries peaceful, the men involved also have to be dealt in the same manner. There seems to be no end to the wars and fights, but effective steps to keep the people involved in peace processes needs to be taken care of.
Source: Telegraph
