An addendum to: National Post: Canadians fighting in Syria could pose ‘immediate’ threat to national security when they return: CSIS

An EU friend in London said to me, “I am surprised your nation – the CIA did not interview you and did not ask you about your experience in Dundalk..….Your nation needs to know who came back.”

I have experience as a civilian being in a war zone in a land foreign to me, and then returning to my home nation.

In my case what came back was a person traumatized about what I had experienced in Dundalk.

In my case what came back was exposure to the brutal end of long conflict – from the midst of a community that was home to a paramilitary organisation.

In my case what came back was a person who literally was trained in analytical and observational skills by my then fiancé - a common practice of Dundalk men with their women and children.

In my case what came back was a person whose conceptualisation of conflict moved from Hollywood sanitized snapshots to the messiness of reality.

In my case what came back was a person who now finds intellectual comfort in the analytical configuration of moving from war to a place of more peace.

In my case what came back was a shy, middle-aged woman who now has the unusual skill-set of being able to lunch/brunch and converse with some of the hardest men on the planet.

In my case what came back was a woman who still to this day views her personal safety and those around her in terms of strategic chess pieces.

I was never interviewed by my nation.

I was never asked what happened by my nation.

And when I attempted to tell an FBI agent of Dundalk I was full on stopped by his leering.

How I ended up in Dundalk had nothing to do with wanting to fight.

I was not a fighter in Dundalk.

I did not come back a threat to my nation.

And it is not a certainty that those who return from a conflict (no matter how they got there) will be a threat to their home nation.

How I came back from Dundalk….Well Canada train your men and women in Security.

And I am living, walking, breathing proof that what comes back from a war is most likely not the person that left.

Salaams,

Debra V. Wilson