Thirty-four U.S. soldiers have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after the Iran missile strike on Iraqi bases late last month, the Pentagon said Friday.
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman broke down the movement of the soldiers as symptoms of their injuries became apparent. Of the 34 total, 18 soldiers were evacuated from Iraq. Of those 18, 17 went to Germany for treatment and nine of them are still there. The other eight traveled to the United States from Germany. The last member of the 18 evacuees went to Kuwait, but has since returned to duty.
The other 16 soldiers were treated in Iraq and have since returned to duty.
Hoffman declined to specify what branches of the military the soldiers belong to.
President Donald Trump dismissed the suspected injuries Wednesday as “headaches.”
“No, I don’t consider them very serious injuries, relative to other injuries that I’ve seen,” Trump said during a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I’ve seen people with no legs and no arms.”
Trump, who famously claimed bone spurs to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War, was loudly rebuked by veteran organizations for his dismissiveness.
Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told the Wall Street Journal that Trump’s comments were “really counterproductive because we’ve worked for the last decade-and-a-half to highlight and educate people about the invisible injuries of war.”
“He really displayed remarkable ignorance about what could be the signature injury of our generation,” he added.
Sad that these soldiers were injured as a direct result of Trump’s tiny digit tantrum…
President Donald Trump dismissed the suspected injuries Wednesday as “headaches.”
“No, I don’t consider them very serious injuries, relative to other injuries that I’ve seen,” Trump said during a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“I know much more than the doctors do about this. Nobody knows more about it than me. They’re just faking these injuries. Believe me, I know a fake injury when I claim - I mean see - one.”
Whiners and malingerers. Trump has made it very clear that there were no injuries, these 34 soldiers are clearly deep state plotters trying to harm him and they should all be court-martialed.
Fine when the next shelling is planned Iran make sure Trump is in the targeted area. Then we will see how TBI is just a headache.
No not really, but this is Trump being his umempathetic self. Nobody in the history of the world has suffered the literal and figurative slings of arrows of outrageous fortune more than Trump. Now give him a lollypop.
they will have a choice next November.