By Marie Koh
Courtesy of Rod of Iron Ministries

As Great Britain battles for independence from the European Union, which plunged the UK into endless covert wars in the Middle East after 9-11, thousands of soldiers are left destitute upon returning home from war.

The rising number of unusual deaths in the British Armed Forces and the Navy is astounding. It is believed that 49 servicemen and women have committed suicide this year.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) reveals a staggering 4oo ex-military personnel suicides between 1995 and 2014, and from 1998 – 2017, 309 suicides occurred among UK regular Armed Forces personnel, 292 among men and 17 among women.

The British Government has not been consistent in recording the deaths of ex-servicemen and women once they leave the Army so the numbers could in fact be a great deal higher.

Ex-Staff Sergeant Trevor Coult, who won the Military Cross while serving with the Royal Irish Regiment in Iraq was quoted in the Daily Star:

“When you have a service member dying by his own hand every 10 days you’ve got a problem. The MoD needs to conduct a detailed investigation to try and find out why troops suffering from PTSD are taking their own lives in such large numbers.”

Richard Pendlebury from the Daily Mail put it this way: “In one year at the height of the Afghan War, more British soldiers took their own lives than were killed by the Taliban.”

His article covers a suicide case that occurred in December 2012 in Northern Ireland where Afghan veteran Lance Corporal James Ross, from 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, took his own life. He was 30 years old.

His mother, Linda Ketcher had sought counseling herself for her son as the Army failed to help him deal with his mental condition. The family felt let down by the Army, and in the leadership they had trusted.

Linda Ketcher questioned whether it was PTSD that killed her son or a chemical reaction to anti-malarial drugs administered to the troops before the Afghan mobilization.

She stated: “The Army should be more mindful of those who serve them so well, and their families. But these young men and women are treated as numbers, not people.

They take them off to fight, but then they don’t want to have to deal with what they have to see and do, and what that does to them.”

To make matters worse, it has been recorded that an estimated 13,ooo ex-military men and women have been rendered homeless after leaving the military, some have been found dead on streets throughout the country.

Les Standish, received the Military Medal for his outstanding service in the Falklands War, yet was left homeless for 6 months after leaving the military, battling PTSD on his own. Things spiraled out of control when he took to alcohol in a desperate attempt to self medicate against sleeplessness and flashbacks from his war experience overseas.

It was during his time on the street that he met with hundreds of ex military servicemen from the Falklands conflict as well as veterans from recent wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan sleeping rough on street corners, parks and bus stops begging for pennies to survive.

Cait Smith, who has been suffering from PTSD for 20 years after her entire command was killed in the 1994 Mull of Kentyre helicopter crash; (an incident shrouded in conspiracy and falsified facts) had this to say to The Mirror:

“Homelessness among the veterans’ community is getting worse by the month. The youngest we have dealt with is an 18-year-old and the oldest is 97. And we helped people of every age in between.

When I left the Army in 1997 I was a single mum. I had nowhere to live and a child to look after. I felt as though I had somehow failed. I was eventually given help and got my life back together.

But I received no help from the Armed Forces. It was from charities and friends.”

Cait Smith and her fiancé Scott Hawtrey who run The Bolton Armed Forces Centre for Veterans, in North West England are ‘overfull’ and severely underfunded for doing what they believe to be extremely important; to support veterans suffering from the aftermath of war and homelessness.

The Armed Forces Covenant made in law in 2011, signed by all the local authorities,  states, “Veterans should have priority status in applying for Government-sponsored affordable housing schemes, and service leavers should retain this status for a period of discharge. Support should be available for all service personnel in order to assist their transition from service to civilian life.”

Was this all lip-work?

Charity organizers across the country say that huge budget cuts to the Armed Forces since 2010, resulted in over 30,000 troops losing their jobs. Many soldiers diagnosed with PTSD are discharged from service each year, placing them at risk once they hit civilian life. Sufferers from mental illness, anxiety and depression have even lost their homes due to unemployment driving them to suicide.

Tommy Robinson, who encountered members of the Military at a gas station in Watford, caused tremendous controversy across main-stream media recently, for having his picture taken with young Army Cadets, resulting in the discharge of a 17 year old Cadet whose only dream was to serve his country.

The #SOLDIERX campaign began soon after to prevent the young man from losing a career in the Army. This situation however, opened up a whole new can of worms, more serious in my opinion than what you’ve just read.

Hundreds of soldiers and officers have since come forward and expressed their discontent in the way soldiers are being treated in the military; from poor living conditions inside their barracks, to bug infested food, ill treatment by their commanding officers, physical abuse as well as sexual assault on young Cadets, and no one being held accountable for wrong doing.

Soldiers have had enough of the ‘political correctness’ agenda within the Armed Forces and want change. There is a fundamental disconnect between Top Brass and soldiers, who say that their superiors conduct themselves like politicians rather than military officers.

Thousands of soldiers left the Armed Forces last year, due to ‘low morale’ among other reasons, and if this continues, there won’t be an army left standing, at least, not as we know it today. The UK political class will be forced to resort to their much anticipated plan— the establishment of a new army, something along the lines of an EU Army. How convenient, especially while Brexit is dangling on a thin wire.

Tommy Robinson is due to meet members of Congress in the U.S. this month. He will also be visiting 5 major cities in Australia. I sincerely hope his visit will bring about the kind of change our servicemen and women deserve as well as the great people of the United Kingdom.

As a former member of the British Army, I am deeply anguished by the treatment of our soldiers who deserve better than what has been handed to them. I pray that the powers that be change their wicked ways or they will be faced with a force they cannot fathom—the full weight of the judgement of God.

Luke 6:20 says: “Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.”

Note, how Jesus did not promise the kingdom to the wealthy and the powerful.