There is already a generational gap. Those coming back from Afghanistan have a completely different view of what they went through. They are coming back to Canada with Afghanistan experience, their problems are much more specific. I think it's good to have someone talk to these soldiers, but it should be a brother in arms who has also served in Afghanistan. It shouldn't be someone like me, who served in Cyprus or Germany, as I am not familiar with their reality. They need to talk to peers who have lived through similar experiences in Afghanistan.
Let's not forget that these men will become problem cases in the future. They will come home at 23 or 24 years of age, after four, five or six missions, in addition to all the preparation for those missions. They prepare for eight months and then spend seven months in the field. They come back from a mission and start getting ready for the next one. They go through this process four times and, once they can no longer go on missions, they will feel a void. Many of them will leave the Canadian Forces because they will need the adrenalin rush, like we needed it when we came back from missions. We were unable to reintegrate ourselves into civilian life. Before life could go on normally, four to six month needed to pass, and many have not been successful in getting back on track.
I am one of those people. I had numerous problems. These young fellows will become powerful time bombs, they will develop post-traumatic stress disorder somewhere between 2018 and 2022. Many people who went to Afghanistan at 21 years of age will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder by the age of 35, that is somewhere between 2020 and 2025. You'll then have a serious problem on your hands. The Department of Veterans Affairs will have a serious problem to deal with. It would be a wise move to establish a peer support system, as I said, to intervene right away, to provide the soldiers with treatment and invest a lot into that treatment without thinking about the dollars. You will go over budget because of what's coming anyway.
I don't know if you understand what I'm getting at. Perhaps I'm expressing myself poorly.