Donald Trump has sparked fresh outrage after he suggested that soldiers who return from war suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are not “strong” and “can’t handle it.”
While addressing a room full of veterans at the Retired American Warriors PAC on Monday in Herndon, Virginia Trump, who himself was a draft dodger, used language that could have been construed as victim blaming soldiers who come back from war with mental trauma.
After being asked a question about the 22 veteran suicides a day the GOP candidate explained to the room his understanding of what PTSD was.
“When you talk about the mental-health problems, when people come back from war and combat, and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it,” said Trump.
He added: “They see horror stories, they see events that you couldn’t see in a movie, nobody would believe it … we need mental health help and medical.”
Trump’s comments have upset some who say his reckless use of terminology while talking about such a sensitive issue has once again illustrated he’s happy to speak on things he knows nothing about.
An estimated 7.8 per cent of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives and experts are constantly trying to get people to understand that PTSD has nothing to do with mental strength. Some people my express some factors that place them at higher risk of experiencing the disorder, but many of those factors are not within an individual’s control.
The 70-year-old was excused from serving in the Vietnam War in the ‘60s after obtaining four deferments and eventually a medical disqualification from a doctor for “bone spurs” in his heels.
In an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, Mr. Trump said the bone spurs had been “temporary” — a “minor” condition, he described.
US Vice President Joe Biden, whose son Beau was a major in the Delaware Army National Guard and served in Iraq, took exception to Trump’s comments while in Florida campaigning for Hillary Clinton.
“Where in the hell is he from?” Biden asked the crowd, before talking about his late son.
“I don’t think he was trying to be mean,” Biden said about Trump, “he is just so thoroughly, completely uninformed. … We only have one sacred obligation, to care for those we send to war and to care for them and their families when they come home.”
It’s not the first time Trump has ruffled the feathers in the military.
In 2015 the business man refused to apologise to veteran and US senator, John McCain who was held for five and a half years as a prisoner of war at the hands of North Vietnam after his plane was shot down over Hanoi in 1967.
Speaking at The Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa in 2015 Trump said the Republican presidential nominee for 2008 wasn’t deserving of the term ‘war hero’.
Trump said: He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured — OK, I hate to tell ya. He’s a war hero because he was captured, OK? And I believe perhaps he is a war hero, but right now, he said some very bad things about a lot of people.
According to a statement given to BuzzFeed, The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America used Trump’s comments to highlight the importance of language when talking about PTSD.
“Every national leader has a responsibility to use accurate and appropriate language when talking about mental health and suicide especially,” IAVA CEO Paul Rieckhoff wrote. “Terms like ‘killing yourself’ or ‘mental problems’ or any suggestion that suicide only impacts the weak, can promote contagion and may discourage people from getting help.”
He added that “getting help for a mental health injury is not a sign of weakness, it’s a demonstration of strength.”
In response to the outrage Trump’s team have sent out a statement from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a retired United States Army lieutenant general who now serves as one of the GOP candidate’s advisors. Flynn blamed “the media” and their reporting on the issue for any offence caused.
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn wrote:
The media continues to operate as the propaganda arm of Hillary Clinton as they took Mr. Trump’s words out of context in order to deceive voters and veterans — an appalling act that shows they are willing to go to any length to carry water for their candidate of choice. Mr. Trump was highlighting the challenges veterans face when returning home after serving their country. He has always respected the service and sacrifice of our military men and women — proposing reforms to Veteran Affairs to adequately address the various issues veterans face when they return home.
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