Cindy (not a part of the campaign) dismisses PTSD saying "he knew what he was doing"

[underpants]

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/

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. It is because the surge worked!!

Silly Cindy

[polichick]

2. What a shallow, stupid woman.

[southern_belle]

3. I don't know who is more stupid,

Cindy McCain or Barracuda Palin. Can you imagine the support our troops would get for having PTSD with a McCain/Palin Administration? :eyes:

[gateley]

4. Honestly, this is one of the most dense, clueless and frightening statements

I've ever heard.

This reminds me of a story I read about an excruciatingly exclusive enclave in Seattle, The Highlands. Boeings, Piggotts, captains of industry, etc. They were interviewing a person who lived at one of the estates in the 1950's because her mom was employed as a servant. They used that word back then.

The matriarch of this family was nice, but, like most of the denizens, treated the black staff as not quite human. Kind of not really people. I remember thinking, as I read it, how could you interact with another person and not connect on that humanity level? I can't imagine.

Well, that's how I view Cindy's statement -- the enlisted, drafted grunts are somehow a little less human than the officers.

Her statement is profoundly disturbing on so many levels.

[Rose Siding]

5. Be quite a shock to the 30% of today's all volunteer, highly trained...

fighting force who return from ridiculously long tours of combat with some form of mental distress.

I just saw this and was about to post it myself. Can you even wrap your mind around the size of the screaming Drudge headline font had Michelle said something so absurd?

[gaiilonfong]

6. She is on Oxy again

watch her speech!

[Norrin Radd]

7. Yet jingling keys freak him out?

[Born_A_Truman]

8. My husband says this is absolute bullshit!

And he should know. He graduated from the Naval Academy, got his wings and was sent to S.E.R.E. school and none of his extensive training (he was also picked and graduated from Top Gun as a RIO) would prevent PTSD. Cindy McCain doesn't have a clue what she is talking about and her comments are condescending to our military.

[underpants]

12. This is on par with supposedly being trained to withstand torture

Not to equate the two but the point is that the excuse was that they can't talk about torture because the bad guys are training people how to withstand torture. You can't train someone to do that. Either they can deal with the pain (there are techiques yes but it is an individual thing) or they can't.

You can't TRAIN someone not to have PTSD. You can make sure they are aware of what they might face (as if they spent no time contemplating that themselves) but you can't make the mind work differently that it does naturally.

and yes this is also very condescending to our military AND it stinks of elevating the Officer class above the enlisted rabble.

[MindMatter]

9. These people are running a TERRIBLE campaign

For a guy who depends on strong support from the military -- I heard a rumor he was once a POW himself -- I can't think is many things that would be stupider to say. But I'll try:

"I propose we close down all the regional VA hospitals and build one giant VA hospital right in the center of the country so we can give our veterans the care they deserve."

or maybe

"My friends, Iraq was a great success because our soldiers lost only 80,000 limbs, and they make great prosthetics these days."

[underpants]

11. I can't find it on a quick search but a Vets hospital was built with private donations

Heavy hitters raised a ton of money to open a VA hospital in Texas (I think) good for them and all that but isn't that what the VA is supposed to be doing?

[Dangerously Amused]

10. "...and if I give you any other answer he'll punish me by calling me a c*nt in public again."