Open Letter to Cindy McCain
Dear Mrs. McCain,
This is unacceptable.
Q: 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.
Q: 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."
Ma'am. I am *really glad* that you and your husband do not have to suffer PTSD. Quite frankly, however, I would really like one of you to have it so that you will understand how completely and entirely you have just insulted everyone who has ever suffered PTSD, and everyone who loves one or more of these people.
Your statement is incredibly classist. Your statement is incredibly ignorant. You demonstrate an appalling lack of understanding of how PTSD works, and your willingness to insult and demean the servicemen and women who gave themselves for this country is simply horrifying.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is not a matter of training, or of knowing what one is going into, or of being an adult who freely chose the battle. Post-traumatic stress disorder is about going through hell. There is no amount of training that can change that going through hell is going through hell.
Soldiers with PTSD are not cowards, nor are they simply unskilled, nor are they children forced to go to war. Soldiers with PTSD are no less heroic than the lucky soldiers who have only post-traumatic stress *syndrome*, or the luckiest soldiers who escaped without a great deal of mental scars.
Soldiers with PTSD deserve better than this kind of dismissal. This sort of belittling, disparaging, and degrading commentary is exactly what veterans' rights activists have been fighting against for decades.
"Experts think PTSD occurs:
* In about 30% of Vietnam veterans, or about 30 out of 100 Vietnam veterans.
* In as many as 10% of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans, or in 10 veterans out of 100.9
* In about 6% to 11% of veterans of the Afghanistan war (Enduring Freedom), or in 6 to 11 veterans out of 100.
* In about 12% to 20% of veterans of the Iraq war (Iraqi Freedom), or in 12 to 20 veterans out of 100."*
I hope, Mrs. McCain, very much, that you consider defending your husband worth discrediting thousands of his fellow soldiers.
*
This is unacceptable.
Q: 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.
Q: 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."
Ma'am. I am *really glad* that you and your husband do not have to suffer PTSD. Quite frankly, however, I would really like one of you to have it so that you will understand how completely and entirely you have just insulted everyone who has ever suffered PTSD, and everyone who loves one or more of these people.
Your statement is incredibly classist. Your statement is incredibly ignorant. You demonstrate an appalling lack of understanding of how PTSD works, and your willingness to insult and demean the servicemen and women who gave themselves for this country is simply horrifying.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is not a matter of training, or of knowing what one is going into, or of being an adult who freely chose the battle. Post-traumatic stress disorder is about going through hell. There is no amount of training that can change that going through hell is going through hell.
Soldiers with PTSD are not cowards, nor are they simply unskilled, nor are they children forced to go to war. Soldiers with PTSD are no less heroic than the lucky soldiers who have only post-traumatic stress *syndrome*, or the luckiest soldiers who escaped without a great deal of mental scars.
Soldiers with PTSD deserve better than this kind of dismissal. This sort of belittling, disparaging, and degrading commentary is exactly what veterans' rights activists have been fighting against for decades.
"Experts think PTSD occurs:
* In about 30% of Vietnam veterans, or about 30 out of 100 Vietnam veterans.
* In as many as 10% of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans, or in 10 veterans out of 100.9
* In about 6% to 11% of veterans of the Afghanistan war (Enduring Freedom), or in 6 to 11 veterans out of 100.
* In about 12% to 20% of veterans of the Iraq war (Iraqi Freedom), or in 12 to 20 veterans out of 100."*
I hope, Mrs. McCain, very much, that you consider defending your husband worth discrediting thousands of his fellow soldiers.
*