Australia says veterans may face problems from Iraq, Afghan tours

Australia says veterans may face problems from Iraq, Afghan tours


SYDNEY (AFP) — More Australian soldiers are likely to have health problems in the future as a result of being deployed to war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan, Veterans' Affairs Minister Alan Griffin said Sunday.

Griffin said officials were beginning to deal with the relatively new dilemma of mental health issues posed by troops who had served in not only one, but multiple, war zones.

He said one of the problems with psychological illness, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, was that it tended not to present itself immediately but years down the track.

"So we can look at it now and say, 'There are x number of veterans who are coming back on a regular basis from Afghanistan. We can look at the figures and say, 'Well, there aren't that many at the moment that are presenting with problems," he said.

"But what we can say with some confidence is that over the coming five to 10 years a lot more of those people will have problems."

Griffin said that coming home was always difficult for soldiers who had experienced war, but this was now compounded by the fact that many Australians had served on multiple fronts, including in East Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands.
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