Trump Dismisses Troops’ Possible Brain Injuries as ‘Headaches’
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday dismissed concussion symptoms reported by several American troops after Iranian airstrikes on Al Asad Air Base in Iraq as “not very serious,” even as the Pentagon acknowledged that a number of service members were being examined for possible traumatic brain injury caused by the attack.
“I heard they had headaches,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference in Davos, Switzerland. “No, I don’t consider them very serious injuries, relative to other injuries that I’ve seen.”
The comments of the president, who avoided the Vietnam War draft with a medical diagnosis of bone spurs, drew swift criticism from veterans’ groups.
“Don’t just be outraged by #PresidentMayhem’s latest asinine comments,” Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, wrote in a Twitter post . “Take action to help vets facing TBIs,” a reference to traumatic brain injury.
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The deputy commander of the American-led military operation in Iraq said the Defense Department was putting the service members through medical examinations to see if the headaches and other complaints amounted to traumatic stress injuries. Some of the affected troops were mere feet away from where the Iranian missiles struck, although they were in protective bunkers, Defense Department officials said.
“I haven’t seen the president’s comments, so I won’t comment on them,” Maj. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich of the Air Force told reporters during a news conference at the Pentagon. “I probably wouldn’t even if I had.”
He added: “I can just tell you from the perspective of a commander on the ground that we’re going to take symptoms from any kind of injury as seriously as we can.”
At a separate event earlier in the day, General Grynkewich denied that the White House had influenced how and when the military acknowledged that several American troops at the Asad base in Iraq had concussion symptoms as a result of the Iranian missile strikes and were being flown to a United States military hospital in Germany for treatment.
“We were not influenced by anyone,” he said.
Trump, you are a giant ass-hat.
You are too kind Larry.
I know, right.?!
...but There are really, nearly no words...
Concussive brain injuries should not be treated lightly. My daughter's father-in-law suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was in Iraq, his humvee hit an IED. Anyway, he suffers terrible headaches and takes about 30 different medications.
The only injury Trump has seen is his own bruised ego.
It astounds me that no matter what asinine thing he does or says, some people still worship him.
One can read the trump worship here on a daily basis.
He is a disgusting POS.
But he's all about military personnel..NOT
He's America's headache.
What, now the POS is a brain specialist.
Sad if anyone defends what this piece of garbage thinks he knows about brain injuries.
They will defend him or ignore it.
Man, just watching republicans on tv they all sound like robots. Repeat trump mantra and fall in line.
Disgusting what the whole republican party has become.
[removed]
I am still amazed people bow down to trump and kiss his feet.
You sound just like party line.
Sorry but people did not follow, agree with everything Obama did.
I for do one not fall for some notion that we have to have a leader and follow the leader no matter what.
That is akin to some stupid notion that one must protect family even if they break the law.
If you think that is all the Dems have done, one is refusing to look.
Simply yes or no answers
Yes or no answer...do you agree that brain injuries are just headaches?
Yes or no answer...is trump qualified to diagnose brain injuries?
Yes or no answer...are you going to defend trump saying this?
He is a Trumper so he will say YES to all 3 questions.
Folks that have been returning from wars in the Mid-East, include many that have these exact injuries. Having the fortune to be friends with some of these people I can tell you that not only is it very real, it is also a very real fear that many soldiers face. “What’s worse than getting killed in battle? Being a vegetable...” is the verbiage I have heard from more than one returning soldier. There is a conscience recognition, that possible Traumatic brain injury is not an uncommon reality.
Trump, fuck you and your “bone spurs”. You don’t know shit.
Dear Brother Larry Hampton: Each of us, in our different roles have seen at V.A. and other hospitals the tragic results of traumatic brain injuries.
They are real.
So are those plagued by them.
Decent people recognize this.
They do and support doing something about it, full state of the art in the medical area.
Anything less is a unique and horrible dereliction of civic and civil duty.
P&AB.
Enoch.
P.S. Welcome back.
It wasn't the same without you here.
Now you again grace us with your wit, wisdom, warm and humanity.
We are grateful.
E.
Thank you Enoch; it is great to be here amongst friends.
:~)
Being one of these Soldiers who come home with TBI, it doesn't help that we have been shit on by our own government they have no problem sending us to war but won't do a damn thing when we come. This isn't Trumps clusterfuck, it's a CONGRESSIONAL clusterfuck dating back a long time.
Thank you for your service.
Something we agree on for a change. Thank-you for your service
So, are all of you ready to go to war with Iran? That is what it sounds like.
If the injuries are that severe, then a direct response is required. Sorry, just ignoring Iranian aggression against US personnel isn't going to cut it anymore. Bush, Obama, and even Trump tried it. It just emboldens them to do more.
I am all for getting out of the middle eastern sandbox and letting our allies that have real assets there that need to be protected take over; not that they will. Syria proved that. The British and French were all bluster about taking over the US roll; but when the time came they beat the US out the door.
Of course both sides bashed Trump for his faux pullout of troops from Syria to the point he backed down. Now those same people are calling for troop withdrawal from Iraq. There are Kurds in Iraq as well. They have been our "allies" far longer than the Syrian Kurds.
24/7 TDDDDS is not the answer to our problems. Letting our "allies" take care of their own problems for a change is.
So, are all of you ready to go to war with Iran? That is what it sounds like.
No.
This article isn't about retaliation against Iran; and, the only comment that even mentions it, is yours. It is about President Rump misdiagnosing brain injuries as headaches.
Meh, we don't know what Trump was told. I don't hear him saying "TBI is only headaches" or "TBI is not serious."
He said he "heard they had headaches." That's not a diagnosis. Someone told him they were having headaches. That's what he heard. Is he supposed to make more of that than there is? That would be just as bad as minimizing a serious injury. It may be too early to say if anyone's condition is "serious." It's definitely too early to make anything out of this throwaway comment.
It's very likely that he heard some Fox entertainer make that claim, and re-spread the lies as he always does. It isn't as though he ever makes the slightest effort to find out what the truth is, since truth is anathema to him.
I think you probably nailed it Katrix.
For all his whining like a baby about "anonymous sources" (him having no clue about how investigative journalism works, of course), he sure uses "many people say" or "I heard someone say this" and pretends it's the absolute truth ... all the fucking time. And it's usually something that only a total moron would actually have said, assuming he didn't just make it up.
And his base eats it up -Emperor Trump can do no wrong.
It doesnt take Sherlock Holmes to figure out Trump's potential motive to downplay this. After the attack that night, he told the world that no Americans had been injured. It would hurt his ego to have to admit that information might have been premature.
Either way, it's still not the same as dismissing TBI and all of the angst I see is based on "probably" and "likely" etc.
Oh for Christs' sake.
Thanks Doc.
There were stories in the news, a number of days before Trump said anything yesterday, indicating that a dozen or so soldiers were being evaluated for possible traumatic brain injury, including severe concussion.
Unless he knows for sure what the nature of these injuries were, he should not be talking about "headaches". It is irresponsible for him to potentially be downplaying the severity of these injuries.
He's the president of the United States for christs sake , dont you have any standards for this man to uphold? None?
I would say he holds this 'president' to absolutely 0, zero, zip, zilch, nada, diddly squat - standards whatsofuckingever.
That's not surprising if they reported headaches. So what?
What do you mean by "talking about headaches?" He said he was told he was told they had headaches. At the moment, he doesn't have a reason to say they have serious injuries. He's reporting what he was told. If he said nothing about it, you'd accuse him of covering it up.
Oh please, then! Tell us what the standard is. What would you like him to say or not say? If he has been told the men have headaches, but it's not yet considered serious, should he say so or not? What is it you want, exactly?
He is their Commander in Chief, some of his soldiers were wounded during missile strikes in direct retaliation from an action he took. Don't you think a responsible person would be aware of his wounded soldiers' conditions?
He is aware. He had someone inform him. He was told they have headaches. It's not like he said "I have no idea what their condition is and I don't care." Is he supposed to turn into a doctor and examine them himself? What is it you want?
That is your claim, please provide evidence for your claim. Traumatic brain injury is NOT "headaches".
It's what he said. That's all the evidence we have to go on.
Yes I know. No one said it was.
YES! He said they had headaches.
Did he know it was traumatic brain injuries? If so, why the simple headache claim?
Was he down playing it because it did not match an earlier statement he made about no casualties? We all know that he refuses to admit to being wrong about anything.
If he knew the seriousness of the injuries, why did he downplay them?
If he did not know about the injuries, why not?
Rump's tactic of purposeful obfuscation is getting old.
'Rump's tactic of purposeful obfuscation is getting old.'
As are his supporters. The twisting is quite tiresome also. PAY NO ATTENTION TO WHAT HE SAID, THIS IS WHAT HE MEANT.
Or....
PAY NO ATTENTION TO WHAT HE SAID YESTERDAY, ONLY BELIEVE WHAT HE SAYS TODAY, EVEN IF IT IS THE TOTAL OPPOSITE.
Do you?
Because it was all he had been told, apparently.
If If If. What good is it to get upset about "ifs?" You have no reason to think he was actually downplaying anything.
Yes.
34 US service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after Iranian missile strike
The Pentagon disclosed Friday that 34 US service members had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury following Iran’s missile strikes on an Iraqi base earlier this month
Or is it because he cares so little about the troops that he put in harms way, that he didn't care enough to inquire about them?
Veterans group demands apology after Trump said traumatic brain injuries from Iranian attack are 'not very serious'
Trump faces pushback from veterans for minimizing troop head injuries
Trump is misinformed about traumatic brain injuries
Combat vet: 'Calling a traumatic brain injury a headache is like calling a compound fracture a leg cramp'
And did that happen before or after Trump's comment? Where is your link showing that Trump was told anyone had been diagnosed with TBI before he made his comment?
Your links show that this announcement was made Friday, January 24. According to the seed, Trump's comments were made on Wednesday. If you're not familiar with these things, Wednesday comes before Friday.
Also according to one of your links,
All of this hate you want to level at Trump presumes, without evidence, that he knew soldiers had been diagnosed with TBI but was going to call it something else. There is no justification for that.
I love how you ignore half the stuff I say.
I said that he SHOULD KNOW , and either he is purposely downplaying their condition, or he cares so little about the troops that he put in harms way, that he didn't care enough to inquire about them?
Or do you actually think a military doctor would contact him, stating that all these soldiers that were at that base at the time of attack, coincidentally all had headaches at the same time?
I haven't made a claim! Unless, "I don't know" is a claim.
How could he know before the men have been completely examined and a report issued? Is he both a doctor and a psychic?
What makes you think he didn't inquire? He said he was told something. There's a good chance that's because he asked. It's not as if people can just run up to the president any time they want and throw information at him.
"We have always been at war with Eurasia. We have never been at war with Eastasia."
Then why is he making statements about their health? You are now claiming that he hadn't seen a report yet, so he decided to make shit up about them????
Because he didn't know, or didn't care about them. One or the other, you can't have both or neither.
As I indicated, based on the language, it sounds like someone asked him.
No. I haven’t made any claims. I have had to point that out more than once now.
How do you know that?
So he made shit up, understood.
Because he didn't know their condition.
I don't know what your deal is with making stuff up and ignoring the content of the seed, but you keep doing it. Quotation from the seed:
"I heard" means someone told him, not that he made it up.
"at a news conference" probably means a reporter asked him about it.
Who told him? Is it the same person that seems to have unlimited access to Trump and is personal phone? Or did he just make up that "someone told him"?
All False statements involving Donald Trump
Warning: quite a few pages ....
I have no idea. Is that important?
Yes.
There are several levels of care in forward areas and base camps, like FST or CSH all equipped to do routine healthcare,including
MRIs and ultrasounds. The battalion in question had a medical team of 30 with 4 surgeons.
The only patients who get the 10 hour Galaxy trip from Irag to Landstuhl are the "seriously injured" ones.
Even healthy well equipped air crew have headaches after a flight like that,
so the implication is that the injuries were much worse than headaches.
They might well be. Let's hope they're not. Everybody's focus here seems to be on certain knowledge that Trump knows they have TBI and is trying to minimize it. But the truth is none of us know that.
Perhaps he wasn't sure, yet could still conclude that they were not all that serious...
“No, I don’t consider them very serious injuries, relative to other injuries that I’ve seen.”
...and...btw, you may not be able to "see" a TBI.
Also doubtful that he has actually seen any injuries, just injured people in a hospital covered in bandages.
A POTUS with empathy for the troops would have investigates these "headaches" and demanded answers from the military doctors. But Trump could care less about the malady's the troops often come home with, unless he can make a buck off of them.
You have no idea what he demanded or didn't demand. Two days later, we got an update on their condition.
Everything you are saying is pure fantasy. You have no evidence of any of this.
So you think if rump asked, the military would have denied him the info?
That is ridiculous.
Btw, Paula has just as much an Idea as you do and to assert anything other is pure fantasy.
I didn't say anything like that. You just made that up.
Makes arguing much easier that way---attribute or pretend you stated something and then argue it.
34 US service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after Iranian missile strike
It seems that the Pentagon, CNN and everybody else in the world, knows that our fine soldiers suffered some serious injuries.
So nine still in Germany weeks later and 8 sent to Walter Reed in DC.
17 returned to Iraq.
Certainly seems like a lot more than 11 headaches.......
Yup, a lot more. I can't even imagine the sacrifices our soldiers are making.
Some are demanding that rump apologize for calling traumatic brain injuries headaches...
Advocates demand apology from Trump for troop concussion comments
Veterans advocates, lawmakers and the father of a SEAL who took his own life are criticizing President Donald Trump after his dismissal of concussion injuries to U.S. troops from an Iranian rocket attack as “not very serious,” saying his comments could discourage service members from reporting their medical problems.
“Traumatic brain injury is a serious injury and one that cannot be taken lightly,” Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander William Schmitz said in a statement over the weekend. “TBI is known to cause depression, memory loss, severe headaches, dizziness and fatigue — all injuries that come with both short- and long-term effects.
“The VFW expects an apology from the president to our service men and women for his misguided remarks.”
The VFW will be waiting for a very long time.
It's criminal
A couple of points. US Military members have been sent to war for decades but when we come home with injuries getting help can be near impossible. It's quite easy to send us off to war, but when the ravages of war come home it seems that the administrations look the other way.
Trump should have kept his mouth shut until he was briefed and actually knew what the results of the attack actually where. I suppose that would be asking the impossible.
Pentagon now says 50 service members suffered brain injuries from Iran attack
Initially the Pentagon said there were no injuries following the Jan. 8 attack.
Crooked donnie can shove his "only headaches" up his ass.
He disgraces the office of the president DAILY
Yes, yes he does, as whenever he graces US with his ever present presence, it presents us all with
this grace, better known asz Disgrace, as that grace, is only one of thousands.
.
It is concerning to me that his hold over some, especially Veterans, who KNOW first hand, what a DISGRACE this 1 of the thousands IS, and still don't call out and hold this mental midget accountable for his Disgacing of our country.
And yes, it is on a daily basis.
Sad, how people refuse to face the TRUTH, that inevitably, They Must, as the longer in denial,
the more pruned their unwashed hands become, the more our once prominent nation becomes
undone,
for what he, and THEY, have let themselves
shun.
As masking reality as to what they seem unable to face, truly is a
Disgrace
UPDATE:
Pentagon Now Says 50 Troops — Not 34 — Suffered Brain Injuries In Iran Strike