Mrs. McCain: Retract Your Statements About PTSD

Veterans for America won't be taking sides in the presidential election, but as a veteran who has spent much of the past seven years helping and advocating for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with combat stress, I can't let the following exchange between Cindy McCain and a Marie Claire reporter go unchallenged:

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

Cindy 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.

Marie Claire: But no cold sweats in the middle of the night?

Cindy 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.

I've read this exchange thirty times on my screen, trying to see if I read it wrong. I've tried give her the benefit of the doubt and come up with some other interpretation, but all I can gather from this is that Cindy McCain thinks that PTSD is a result of either incompetence, poor training, lack of resolve, or some combination of the three. That her husband escaped the wrath of combat stress because his heart was more in it than draftees', that his training left him better equipped than infantrymen to deal with the horrors of war, or that he "knew what he was doing" more than the countless Vietnam veterans Sen. McCain and I both know who still suffer from PTSD.

Cindy McCain should apologize to veterans and PTSD sufferers and go on record saying that her husband's lack of mental combat wounds don't result from his training, valor, or competence. We have soldiers arriving from Iraq and Afghanistan in thousands, facing two ruthlessly difficult tasks: fighting tooth and nail to get the proper treatment and care for their mental wounds, and dealing with the stigma of PTSD. Having any public figure, let alone the potential first lady, insinuate that sufferers have a hand in their condition can make both of these already difficult tasks unbearable. This perspective is both false on its face, and harmful to our troops and veterans.

Mrs. McCain: PTSD is a non-partisan issue. It doesn't discriminate between Democrats, Republicans, or independents, and doesn't discriminate between Fort Bragg and the U.S. Naval Academy either. Please retract your misinformed statements about the nature of the mental wounds of war.

Comments

[propitiousmoment]

This is something that has bothered me for a while. We may not know what McCain's private experience is with regard to the effects of his war experiences, but surely his public behavior has some of the earmarks of PTSD? i.e., we don't know if he wakes up sweating or not, but he's very touchy and volatile, or am I just misreading the signs of over-caffeination? Or maybe it's early onset senility? Whatever the diagnosis, he would not be my first choice for CIC. Barack may be young, but he has unmistakable leadership qualities and I would trust my life to his calm and open demeanor, his above average intelligence, and his humane value system, over the republican alternative any day. I find it impossible not to feel some compassion for the McCains' suffering, but I don't want to give them the keys to the future of my country.

[EtTuBrute]

(continued from prior post) This situation has existed since the beginning of our nation, and is now somewhat better, but the roadblocks erected for this newest group of veterans remind me very distinctly of the ones used by the Nixon administration which were designed to do everything possible to cut the costs that veteran's care would impose on the nation.

Comments such as Mrs. McCain's only serve to reverse much of the progress made to date, and should be immediately retracted, with an apology to all veterans.

I also sincerely doubt that the Senator has no 3 a.m. cold sweats at times, as we all do.

Apologia Pro Poemate Meo - Wilfred Owen (R.I.P.)

[EtTuBrute]

Thank You, Mr. Muller.

As a disabled veteran (and business owner and productive member of society) (and SERE school graduate) who suffers from PTSD (and other service-related physical disabilities), I cannot believe the ignorance, prejudice, and cavalier attitude betrayed by Mrs. McCain's comments. Like you, I re-read her comments multiple times thinking that I must have misread or misunderstood the quotation, and wasn't satisfied until I actually saw the video myself.

Many of us who suffer from PTSD and other physical disabilities resulting from our service spend inordinate amounts of time trying to convince veterans of the most recent conflicts who suffer from PTSD to seek assistance, and then helping them try to scale the walls of the government bureaucracies erected specifically to discourage them and deny their legitimate benefits.

As stated in your Bio here, the shameful "problems of neglect, frustration and inadequate care being given to wounded veterans in the US" provide a true assessment of the level of commitment that the American public really has towards "supporting the troops". Isn't it sad that the most prominent and persistent champions of care for veterans are most often other veterans such as yourself and many others I could name, and not those who most loudly bray their "patriotism" and "support for the troops"? (continued)

[Miravanguild]

I suffer to some extent from PTSD, my child suicided, shot gun blast to the head, I saw him afterwards... No mother should see a thing like that... If I was trained for the possiblity that my child was going to blow his brains out, I wouldn't suffer? Is that what she is saying? What total B.S. blame the victim...

[Danigirl65]

Wow - I didn't hear these words from the eloquent Mrs. McCain. As an employer who had a temp employee who was a 20 year "lifer" who had recommitted to the "weekend warrior" status and was sent to Iraq, I can tell you about PTSD and the drugs the government forces on these men and the effects on their ability to hold a job.

John McCain had the Naval Academy; my temp had 20 years of experience that did not prepare him for Iraq. PTSD is not a sign of inexperience or unpreparedness - it is a sign of the stress of repeated deployments with little break and the knowledge, in the back of their heads, that we are not there for the right reason but their job is to be "the unwilling. . . led by the unqualified. . . to do the unnecessary . . . for the ungrateful. Sound familiar??

[Gidster]

Not to forget warfare at 15,000 feet is much different than warfare at the ground level. McCain never had to deal with the smell, the closest he got was during the Forrestal fire which he accidentally started.

He did not have the horror of ground combat. He had the horror of prison and torture.
I am certain that that has a lasting effect as well.

[butofcourse]

Reason number 5,483 that I do not like that out of touch woman. This is right up there with, "The only way to get around Arizona is by small private plane".

[AmericasMostGangsta]

I don't know how she's been able to maintain her "in touch" nature, and not turn into an elitist, like that no goodnick, Obama!

[3dtrix]

This is the inescapable truth: The thing that McCain and his followers hold as his prime qualification for the presidency is PRECISELY the thing that disqualifies him. Broken and traumatized in a failed war, he endlessly seeks redemption through victory in war - any war, anywhere. Who should be kept farther away from the power to unleash the dogs of war than the one who craves their baying?

[RolloWisc]

I am a therapist who works mainly with PTSD and has studied PTSD treatment for years.

Let's say that I am held up, mugged, raped, witness my child being killed, witness a plane crash...

My training in the treatment and understanding of PTSD hardly makes me less likely to suffer from PTSD in extreme conditions i.e. being a POW.

[missjabez]

I can't remember if this was on Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow, but Cindy McCain's comment was discussed by an advocate for veterans, and he was totally astounded by Cindy's callousness.

[missjabez]

Why can't the McCain campaign keep Cindy quiet? Michelle Obama is probably 10 times smarter than her counterpart, but I notice Michelle isn't constantly flapping her jaws.

[egal]

EVERYthing's a partisan issue with her.

The GOP party has a dismal record when it comes to the needs of soldiers and Veterans, and they don't believe the military studies about retention, so it's unlikely they'd believe the ones about PTSD. Acting like it's something you can be trained to avoid is just proof they're completely out of touch with reality, and too selfish to bother learning about what the troops need when they only view the troops as politcal capital.

[fedupinfla]

"Cindy 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"

Are you kidding me?!?!? The PAST? NOT A PART OF HIS DAILY EXPERIENCE?

All that man DOES is talk about his friggin' POW status as an excuse for EVERYTHING from racism to not knowing how many houses he has!!!
This tight faced shrew makes me sick and owes a major apology to every vet past, present & future. Then she needs to keep her damn mouth shut and go back to Az.

[ARTIST50]

His training obviously didn't work because he was broken. He admits that they broke him him and he talked for medical care. I also find it interesting that those records have been sealed, so no one really knows what he told the Viet Cong.

[tinarm]

You know my dad's a vet and when he heard this he was screaming out loud. You know I don't think my dad was weak, he was undertrained, but let me tell you. As a child I saw my dad many a nights thinking he was back in nam, screaming and crawling across the floor. Night sweats, anger, please Mrs McCain understands nothing when it comes to war or the effects from it apparently.

[RightWingMarine]

As a pilot John McCain would have gone through SERE training. That stands for Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape and would have been trained in what the law of war is concerning POWs and how the enemy would not honor this law. A vast majority of service-members being deployed would not have been through this training which is widely believed to be some of the most difficult training offered by the US military.

I suspect this is what Cindy was referring to when she says her husband was trained.

[ESerafina42]

Do you really think she knows the details of his training? Somehow I doubt it.

[zanzig]

Well, he Survived.

How does/did SERE equip a soldier to not suffer PTSD?