New reports are surfacing countering President Trump’s claim that there were no injuries during the strike by Iran against the Iraqi base where U.S. troops were being housed.
While there were no fatalities, we now know there are 34 soldiers reporting brain injuries as a direct result of that attack.
Serious Understatement
Head injuries for troops are a very touchy subject and Trump made a major misstep earlier this week when he tried to downplay the severity of the injuries.
When the President learned of the brain injuries, he told reporters, “I heard they had headaches.
“I can report it is not very serious.”
When asked again about the seriousness of these injuries, Trump further stated, “No, I don’t consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries that I’ve seen.
“I’ve seen what Iran has done with their roadside bombs to our troops.
“I’ve seen people with no legs and no arms.
“I’ve seen people that were horribly, horribly injured that area, that war.”
While 17 of the soldiers have returned to duty, the President’s characterization of the injuries is getting him into considerable hot water.
Trump’s comments drew the ire of numerous advocates for veterans suffering from TBI…
The @DeptVetAffairs and hundreds of thousands of post-9/11 veterans disagree: https://t.co/bsMBRhoTlP Don’t just be outraged by #PresidentMayhem’s latest asinine comments. Take action to help vets facing TBIs: https://t.co/xK1eyH1LJe https://t.co/HV9r0CxTHr
— Paul Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) January 22, 2020
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is at the center of the veteran suicide problem.
This is an injury that would often go unreported, only for doctors to find out during autopsies of suicide victims that they had serious head injuries that caused the soldiers to become mentally unbalanced.
It has taken our troops significant effort to get the military and our government to recognize this as a problem, so Trump definitely misspoke on this subject.
While I can appreciate Trump’s point regarding physical injuries, these head injuries can often be far more devastating.
In fact, many troops would say at least a physical injury is something they can see and gauge their recovery from, while TBI is something that may not even come to fruition for many years down the road.
Suddenly, these veterans literally start to lose their mind and have thoughts of doing harm to themselves or others, they fall into depression, and they have no idea why.
President Trump has done a very good job of getting the VA turned around and getting more for our veterans, but he would be well-served to apologize for these comments and assure everyone these injuries will be treated with the same level of care and concern as someone suffering from a visible wound.
These injuries are serious and those brave soldiers present during the attack that suffered these injuries do not deserve to have them belittled by anyone, including President Trump.
Source: ABC News
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