Afghanistan veterans fear it wasn’t worth it

John Bale joined the army with a close schoolmate after 9/11: now he runs a support group dedicated to helping veterans.

19/02/2016: Afghanistan veteran John Bale holds a photo of his fallen friend Lt. Michael Fussell at Parliament House in Canberra. Stefan Postles/The Australian

John Bale joined the army with his close schoolmate Michael Fussell soon after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, with a strong sense of patriotism.

“September 11 did have a significant impact on my generation, and the correlation with Afghan­istan,” Mr Bale told The Weekend Australian.

“It felt like a just war and it was the right thing to do to be part of that.”

The former army captain was shattered when Lieutenant Fussell was killed on November 27, 2008, in Afghanistan.

On his return to Australia, Mr Bale was in a small team of family and friends that launched the support group Soldier On, which now has centres all over Australia to help the hundreds wounded physically and psychologically in Afghanista­n and other conflicts.

“It was a very good thing to do for Fuss and the others on that patrol,” he said.

Mr Bale said suicide rates and homelessness among veterans were increasing.

His father, Lance Bombardier George Bale, was wounded in the battle to save Fire Support Base Coral in Vietnam and he told John this week how gutted he and his mates were when the North Vietnamese tanks arrived in Saigon.

John Bale fears that if there is a collapse in Afghanistan, it could trigger a wave of similar deep dismay in veterans who fought in the country.

“For those who served in Afghanist­an, it was a success. We did our job well despite the shifting sands of policy and the politics of it all,” Mr Bale said.

“The Diggers at the end of the day did a phenomenal job and achieved in all the different phases, the reconstruction part, providing security and mentoring the Afghan­ army.

“If it goes badly in Afghanistan in the way it did in Vietnam, then that question of ‘was it all worth it?’ will become really pertinent.

“It’s not there now, but will it be? And that’s back on to the politic­ians and NATO and the coal­ition to ensure that the sacrifice, the blood that was put into that place, the billions and billions of dollars, means something at the end of the day.

“At this point we can hold our head high in terms of what we achieved in bringing a better life to the people there. Even if it does not last, that is better than not having it happen at all.

“But there was a high cost and there still is a high cost.”