Cindy McCain: Vietnam vets with PTSD were 18-year-olds who didn’t know what they were doing.

[JonLP24]

During a recent interview with Marie Claire, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) wife Cindy suggested that her husband has never had PTSD symptoms because “he was trained.” She also added that symptoms such as “cold sweats in the middle of the night” are reserved for the “the 18-year-olds who were drafted”:

Q: You met your husband after his POW days. To what extent is that still with you - or is it a part of history?

McCAIN: My husband will be the first one to tell you that that’s in the past. Certainly it’s a part of who he is, but he doesn’t dwell on it. It’s not part of a daily experience that we experience or anything like that. But it has shaped him. It has made him the leader that he is.

Q: But no cold sweats in the middle of the night?

McCAIN: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. My husband, he’d be the first one to tell you that he was trained to do what he was doing. The guys who had the trouble were the 18-year-olds who were drafted. He was trained, he went to the Naval Academy, he was a trained United States naval officer, and so he knew what he was doing.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/09/cindy-draftees-ptsd/

[MadMaddie]

1. Wonder how that's going over with the Vietnam Vets?

She just opened a can of worms that should not have been opened!

[grannie4peace]

2. yea, right

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Yeah, right. Just like he knew how to fly those planes. . . . . .

. . .. . straight into the ground.

Remember, Miss Cindy, that his training wasn't good enough to keep him from breaking under torture. Others who didn't break must've been better trained?? Or were they just stronger to begin with.


What an ass she is. What a braying -- and ugly and ill-dressed -- ass.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. He was trained to crash jets?

She is a stupid, stupid woman.

[TomInTib]

5. She's partially right, you know.

The guys straight out of Boot or School were in no way trained or conditioned for the elements.

SF and some pilots were, though.

Speaking of, the Blue Angels just flew over. I am off to the waterfront to watch the show.

Tom

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. She was not right to flap her gums about it, though. She came off sounding elitist.

[TomInTib]

25. That pretty much goes without saying.

But I blame the military for the callous disregard that is shown towards the mental well-being of combatants.

[billyoc]

6. What a fucking jerkoff. I've changed my mind, it's time to shine a little sunshine

on this junkie camp follower.

[Happyhippychick]

7. Oh my God. This is proof positive that this woman has no idea of what she is talking so she should

just STFU.

There is nobody, you hear that, nobody, who has PTSD that doesn't live through hell on a daily basis. How uncompassionate and wrong she is.

In short, she's a wench.

[Aristus]

9. Listen to this, bitch! My dad was 28, not eighteen, an officer, not a draftee, and

highly trained as a Registered Nurse to take care of all those 18-year old draftees who got wounded. It was an entire year of 24-36 hour shifts in emergency surgery patching them back together that caused his PTSD. It turned him inside out as a human being. And fuck you, you robotic old hag, for diminishing the severity of such an awful affliction. The only way you'll ever see the inside of the White House will be as a guest of President Obama. If he wants your sorry, baggy, insensitive ass as a guest...



My Dad; a veteran, an officer, and a sufferer of PTSD...

I salute him. :patriot:

[TwilightGardener]

10. Salute to your dad...

:patriot:

[Aristus]

11. Thank you.

:pals:


I'm still so mad I could SPIT! :grr::mad:

[TwilightGardener]

13. Her comments made me angry, too--they put the stigma back into PTSD

as a syndrome that only affects the mentally weak, the guys who weren't "professional" enough or trained enough--this is why so many soldiers, like my husband's grandfather, who came back forever messed up from his experiences in WW2, were ashamed to seek help. Disgusting.

[Waiting For Everyman]

22. Exactly.

My late husband was 100% disabled PTSD. This is the Patton bullshit again.

Nice caring about vets, Cindy-Lou-Who. Give Grinchie one of these from all the 19 year olds he obviously fed you that line about...

[MikeNearMcChord]

14. 2nd to weinerdoggie!

:patriot: I hope your father and many others who suffer from PTSD get the right treatment they deserve, I hope President Obama gives the VA the right tools to treat those who were willing to stand and serve America, in times of combat.

[Aristus]

16. Hey, MikeNearMcChord! Long time!

I'm out in Puyallup. I see the C-17s going overhead nearly every day...

:hi:

[MikeNearMcChord]

18. A shout out to you too!

:hi: I live close to the base, that at certain times of the year you can hear the Star Spangled Banner being played on the base at the end of the day. Not to mention when the rev up the engines. I like to see those C-17's fly, I never get tired of them. :patriot:

[JonLP24]

19. You lived near McChord?

Did you live in that neighborhood they call 'chocolate city'?

I lived in East Tacoma myself while stationed at Fort Lewis

[MikeNearMcChord]

26. I did at one time, still got that name

though now it is becoming more home for many immigrants most from Mexico and Central America, and a more upscale name of Springbrook. Before the housing burst there was a couple of condos, that is going up there, I don't know if they can sell.

[JonLP24]

15. Me too

:patriot:

[classof56]

17. I join your salute to your dad and commend his service.

What an awful thing we (the US) did to so many fine soldiers. I know a Vietnam vet who suffers PTSD (July 4 is his least favorite holiday), and I find Cindy McCain's statements hateful, ugly and showing a total lack of compassion. She is a soulless creature with no shame whatsoever. When you called her a robotic old hag, you nailed it. I'll remember that one!

Thanks for this post, your dad's picture, and for honoring him as you do. Believe me, I share your anger and frustration.

Blessings to you!

[otherlander]

27. To Aristus's Dad:

:patriot:

[JimWis]

12. How can someone married to a Vietnam vet be so damn stupid

about the subject. She has no clue as to what the hell she is talking about. I think it is an insult to any veteran who had PTSD from any war. I am not sure what all the branches of service did, but many of us sent to Vietnam had to go through some sort of Escape and Evasion training, which included prisoner of war training.

[prayin4rain]

20. she is a walking example of the effects of his PTSD n/t

[Forkboy]

21. Keep talking Cindy!

:thumbsup:

[TahitiNut]

23. Going over or coming back, the Army did a shitty job of transitioning ... and still does.

Of course guys need to receive training and conditioning before coping with the utter insanity of such places. At the same time, they need treatment and counseling AFTERWARD.

(But Jack and Jill Couchpotatoe don't give a flying fuck as long as their HDTV is working.)

[4lbs]

24. It is doubtful that pilots would suffer from PTSD as much as Marine/Army troops that were..

on the ground, fighting in the jungles and mud.

Flying at 10,000+ feet you don't see bodies ripped apart by grenades, mines, and mortars. You don't see your fellow soldiers alive one second and dead 5 seconds later, with half their head gone. You don't see guys trying to hold their guts in after shrapnel or a rifle bullet rips open their abdomen. You don't have to worry about walking through a jungle and hitting a tripwire or stepping on a land mine.

It has nothing to do with "training". It has to do with what a soldier sees every day in combat.