Caring for Iraq’s Veterans: Lessons from the Royal Canadian Legion

In the changing fight against Da’ish in Iraq, thousands of soldiers and policemen are wounded or retired from service. In the aftermath of Da’ish, we’ll see thousands more become demobilized and require support and reintegration services. A common issue is that soldiers that demobilize from service either have no job to enter or cannot re-use their skills elsewhere. In other cases, simply because they are bored, need the money, want to feel empowered, or are looking for some place to belong, people move back towards militias or gangs. This is not a unique phenomenon, as we see numerous organizations such as the Hell’s Angels appear from veterans returning from WWII.

If not addressed, demobilization can be accompanied by a sharp spike of drug abuse, gangs, suicide, financial hardship, and abuse of spouses stemming from mental health problems, financial desperation, boredom, and anger in Iraq. Thus far there have been poor or limited services to help veterans and their families as the Iraqi federal government already struggles with providing sufficient services to these veterans. This has a deep impact on their lives and ability to re-enter civilian life. While the Martyr’s commission does provide some services, senseless red tape (such as the requirement of a death certificate to receive services as a family member and difficulty of obtaining one) and a spike in demobilized soldiers will challenge its ability to keep up with demand for the services it currently does provide.

To try and combat similar circumstances in Canada, organizations such as the Royal Canadian Legion (RCL) emerged post-WWI to serve as a voice for veterans and a gathering place for them and community. While the organization has evolved extensively over the years, the RCL plays a unique role in communities and with veterans. The idea is simple: provide a low-cost gathering hall which includes some basic amenities such as a kitchen with tables and create local branches in towns and cities across the country. Membership is voluntary, and the whole organization is based upon internal governance and elections of branch representation. Notably, as the primary website explains:

Legion Branches are autonomous and independently operated. Their policies and activities are defined by their membership in accordance with Legion by-laws, allowing them to meet the needs of local Veterans and support their community. Branches have volunteer Service Officers who can assist Veterans or refer them to Provincial Command for specialized help.

These branches offer a space where veterans can gather to meet and talk with each other – like with like – to assist one another and to, overall, just hang out with the old crew. With similar experiences and understanding, the ability to start to normalize important issues such as mental health awareness and to watch out for one another can create a social safety net for these groups. Additionally, for families of veterans, it can provide further connections and amplified voices for their needs; over time, the RCL began to offer services ranging from financial assistance to adjusting to civilian life, while also serving to democratically advocate for veterans rights locally, provincially, and federally. Lastly, it serves as a hub for government services operations: with veterans at this localized location, it becomes significantly easier to advertise and provide services to them- as an example, the Legion is partnered with Couples Overcoming PTSD Everyday (COPE) Canada and the Veterans Transition Network to provide connections to a variety of services available. This type of shared services delivery and distributed governance helps to promote a network among service providers between government and NGOs as well as a hub for those services to come together and lower overall costs, and most importantly improve service delivery.

Legions also serve a distinct community role as a gathering place and cheap option to host various local community events and groups while provide members different opportunities to engage in broad volunteering opportunities to work with the local community. One of the primary benefits here is the consistent mixing of low-cost services (which typically also fundraise to balance-out costs) for entertainment and community gatherings to promote local community support. Importantly, these events typically incorporate local youth as well, promoting volunteerism and community engagement.

For those considering the RCL model two elements to keep a keen eye on are to ensure they remain a safe space for youth and veterans, and to ensure that they remain outside the purview of political interests or militias. The last thing Iraq needs is a creation of a Basij style organization as a byproduct of a well-intended government policy for helping a population in need. This of course will be a difficult task in and of itself, but a necessary one. Notably, a model like the RCL will allow for a formal outlet of service delivery backed by the Iraqi state, rather than a model of service delivery that serves as parallel or a challenge to the state.

Overall, the creation of a space like the RCL can serve multiple societal goods while helping Iraqi veterans. Veterans are like any group of people: incredibly diverse and complicated. By helping to establish programs such as the Legion in Iraq, it helps to provide another means for veterans to re-engage and have outreach to local community, while providing access to new services that they may have not known about before. Most importantly, perhaps, is that it offers a place where members can go to tap into part of their identity and grow it further in a positive and healthy way.