Joe Biden, the American vice president, has accused Donald Trump of”ignorance” over his remark that some members of the military develop mental health issues because they are not “strong,” and “can’t handle it”. “How can he be so out of touch?” Mr Biden asked in an interview with CNN yesterday. He said that Mr Trump was “not a bad man.” But he added: “His ignorance is profound, so profound.”
The Republican presidential candidate caused fury among military men and mental health professionals when he made the controversial remarks during a question and answer session with military veterans in Virginia. “When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat, they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over,” he said. “And you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it. And they see horror stories, they see events that you couldn’t see in a movie – nobody would believe it.” While Mr Trump appeared sympathetic to the problem, his diagnosis, linking post traumatic stress to someone’s mental strength, goes against the work of doctors who have spent decades trying to destigmatise depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Many service members think that they should handle these issues on their own and that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Suicide has become an epidemic among veterans, and more than 20 end their lives each day. “At the very least, it’s a very poor choice of words. PTSD is basically a rewiring of the brain as the result of trauma or prolonged trauma. That is not a reflection of a person’s strength, character, stamina – any of that,” said David Maulsby, the executive director of the Texas-based PTSD Foundation of America.
Mr Biden, whose late son Beau was a highly decorated military veteran, seemed personally offended by the comments. “Where the hell is he from?” he asked a crowd in Florida, gathered for a rally to support Hillary Clinton. He told how he carried in his pocket every day a list of his engagements, and on it a list of the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Every one of those warriors left behind a family. A community,” he said. “Over 200,000 coming home with unseen wounds. I don’t think he was trying to be mean. He is just so thoroughly, completely uninformed.” Mr Trump’s campaign defended the candidate’s comments.
“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,” said retired Lt Gen Michael Flynn, one of Mr Trump’s top advisers, in a statement. “Mr Trump was highlighting the challenges veterans face when returning home after serving their country.”