FAO: The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs – The Right Honourable Mr Johnny Mercer M.P.
My name is James Johnson and as you know I am the co-founder of Veterans in Prison (VIP). I wrote to you on the 1st of November 2022, regarding your re-appointment as the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and asked the question: “What are you going to do about the high numbers of combat veterans in the prison population serving sentences for violence?”. As expected, you did not reply to my letter, therefore I decided to bring this ongoing national disgrace out into the open public domain and hopefully let the public read for themselves how combat veterans and their innocent victims of violence have been sacrificed over the decades by past and present Governments!
I also informed you of the key to the problem being the extreme violence subconsciously implanted in combat veterans minds prior to their deployment in conflicts, to ensure they do their job of killing other human beings without any thought or hesitation. And this violence continues on their return to peacetime communities because they never received an essential programme of deconditioning. Thus, through no fault of their own, they unwittingly became liabilities and most prone to repeating this subconsciously implanted violent behaviour, as the high numbers of combat veterans inside the Criminal Justice System will reveal.
I pointed out that this was a scandalous ongoing catastrophe and created a travesty of Justice, in that it betrayed everything combat veterans have ever fought for and believed in. The failure to deprogramme their minds of this implanted extreme violence has caused a myriad of problems that will without doubt damage the rest of their lives in society, and bring a huge rise in domestic violence by veterans, as well as those in the Criminal Justice System. But the Criminal Justice System is incapable of rehabilitating these combat veterans, largely because their rehabilitation courses are unsuitable for dealing with this type of ‘offending behaviour’ of this implanted extreme violence!
I offered a way forward in dealing with combat veterans in the prison population serving sentences for violence, by informing you of the Veterans Survival Guide for PTSD. I also mentioned the Break Off programme, and how these publications should be issued to all combat veterans on their return from conflicts. As these would de-programme them from this implanted extreme violence whilst they reside in prison and hence resolve this question of violence and combat veterans. I also offered to supply you with free copies of these publications, so you could see for yourself how they relate to the high numbers of combat veterans serving prison sentences for violence.
However, like all of our Veterans’ Ministers and for reasons of your own, you choose not to respond to my letter since undoubtedly this would involve going down the road of opening the Pandora’s box of the absolute carnage which past and present Governments have ignorantly allowed combat veterans to bring home after their service in conflicts.
Therefore Sir, seeing that this violence has seemingly been left ignored by Veterans’ Ministers until now, I should explain this problem to you, in plain English: ‘Imagine British soldiers being given a ‘free hand’ to attack, kill, murder, and rape thousands of innocent civilians like Russian soldiers in Ukraine. There would of course be a worldwide condemnation as the Russian Government is now experiencing from the United Nations, G7 and the rest of NATO forces.
Thankfully, because of the leadership control of British troops, this appalling scenario does not happen while they are in conflict situations. However, this ‘free hand’ of violence is occurring on an individual level once veterans return home to the United Kingdom, as they are no longer part of any military force, and this subconsciously implanted violence does not miraculously disappear with age. Deplorably, this violent behaviour of combat veterans has been happening since combat troops were first deployed into Northern Ireland, as this was when the numbers of combat veterans serving sentences for violence in the prison system began rising. Scandalously, over the decades past and present Governments have found it easier to hide this problem of extreme violence being brought home by combat veterans from conflicts under the guise of general criminal behaviour, or by deliberately not distinguishing them from other armed forces personnel or the rest of the prison population!
The crux of this matter is that the most fundamental duty of a Government is to protect and serve the people. Tragically, this has now become ineffectual as many thousands of innocent civilians have become the victims of combat veterans’ extreme violence. The solution is accountability and responsibility of Governments, and to de-programme combat veterans from this subconsciously implanted extreme violence before they return to peacetime surroundings!
