STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK [The shopworn title of the story, as well as the paradoxical sentiments expressed in the last sentence notwithstanding, every advocate of humanitarian war - the ultimate oxymoron - should be urged to read it. The Canadian medic's account is not that of Bill Clinton's and Tony Blair's media campaign, not that of NATO pilots' video game diversions, but one of - to emend the title of the Raymond Carver short story - what we mean when we talk about war, 'humanitarian' or otherwise. NATO's criminal enterprise has claimed another victim.] Thursday, May 31, 2001 The personal hell of a hero Commendation brings back painful memories for city military medic By PAUL COWAN, EDMONTON SUN Three weeks in a mental hospital is a high price to pay for being a hero. But that's only part of the legacy of a 1999 tour of duty in Kosovo for Edmonton military medic Cpl. Debbie Basker. Today she receives a commendation from her boss, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Maurice Baril, for saving the life of a Kosovo boy who suffered massive injuries when a NATO cluster bomb he was playing with exploded. That incident, among others, helped give Basker the post-traumatic stress disorder that put her in a psychiatric hospital for nearly a month. "I'm not really looking forward to (the presentation) because it will bring back memories," said the 29-year-old. "But I don't regret what has happened to me. It has made me a more intelligent medic." The diary that Basker, a veteran of three peacekeeping missions, kept while in Kosovo is locked away and she never had any of the photos she took while there developed. But her memories of Kosovo are all too clear. The half-hostile crowd that watched her fight to save the boy's life. The bomb-mutilated children in the hospital where he was taken. Basker's actions attracted worldwide media attention - and a whole new level of stress. "I was being built up as some kind of a war hero - being put on a pedestal," she explained. "I felt a tremendous pressure to ... not let anybody down." With two weeks left to serve in Kosovo, Basker was burning out. "I was doing a bit of drinking and that helped me socialize," she said. "But by the end I was drinking heavily on my own in the medical station. I was having nightmares and waking up soaked in my own sweat." Kosovo wasn't Basker's first brush with combat stress. In 1994 she suffered shakes and insomnia after being sent out under fire to help rescue a Canadian peacekeeper shot in the back by a sniper in Bosnia. Shortly after returning to Edmonton in December 1999, Basker was feeling suicidal, so she went to Royal Alexandra Hospital. She was quickly diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. "I felt I was losing my mind. I was afraid to leave the house," she recalled. "I had a tremendous amount of grief. "I felt the whole world was evil." In May 2000 she was admitted to Alberta Hospital. "It was the best thing that happened to me," she said. Six months later she was back at work at 1 Combat Engineer Regiment - against the advice of her civilian doctor. But an exercise at Camp Wainwright involving loud explosions set back her recovery. Basker was then posted to the medical centre at the Edmonton Garrison, but said negative attitudes of medical colleagues towards post-traumatic stress disorder put her back on sick leave in March. She is on sick leave until October. She can't wait to get back in uniform. "I love the military," she said. "All I want to do is to get back and help people." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
