As I see it, there is only one: bring back the monthly pension. That is the top priority. It would not be difficult to do and it is the only way to ensure their security. I keep coming back to the fact that these individuals are fragile, with physical and psychological wounds. Physically, what will they be like 10 years from now?
When you are 60 years old, you often have pains here and there when you get up in the morning, or your knee hurts the following morning. But will they, who have serious injuries to their legs and have had multiple surgeries—and many of them have—still be able to walk at the age of 60 or will they be in a wheelchair?
That is why I say it is all well and good to have all these programs… First of all, have you thought of how they will all be administered? It will be complicated. I am not an accountant, but I know how to count. And it seems to me it will be incredibly complex. But the main thing is that soldiers will forever have to be justifying themselves. Do they deserve that? In your opinion, is it fair that they always have to justify themselves, after all they have been through? They feel empty inside. These people are human wrecks.
It is awful that they are forced to justify what they are asking for every time a new medical problem arises; they have to go through the same process time and again and provide an explanation over and over again. It is awful to put them through that. In my opinion, they do not deserve that, after what they have been through and what they have given to this country. And we cannot accept that—neither any of you or any citizen of this country, starting with myself.