Canadian soldiers undergo health inspections as part of the demobilization process in 1919. Medical personnel checked for a variety of ailments, including venereal disease, and held back afflicted soldiers until they were cured. These examinations were especially important in light of the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, which killed millions worldwide and approximately 50,000 in Canada.
George Metcalf Archival Collection
NATO is broke, except maybe Germany, and the rush for Afghan exits is in full swing, including NATO auxiliaries like Australia. There have been some hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Afghanistan in the last 10 years, and the outlook for war is poor, at least that of the nationally financed resource squandering infantry spectacles. War could of course be fought to extinction with machines, but assuming that not to be the case, there are going to be a lot of scarred, injured, war veterans experienced in violence yet unemployed, and perhaps - as after Vietnam - finding civilian life impossible. So, good luck to all of us.
