WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday dismissed concussion signs reported by a number of American troops after Iranian airstrikes on Al Asad Ai
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday dismissed concussion signs reported by a number of American troops after Iranian airstrikes on Al Asad Air Base in Iraq as “not very severe,” even because the Pentagon acknowledged that a variety of service members had been being examined for attainable traumatic mind harm brought on by the assault.
“I heard they’d complications,” Mr. Trump mentioned at a information convention in Davos, Switzerland. “No, I don’t take into account them very severe accidents, relative to different accidents that I’ve seen.”
The feedback of the president, who averted the Vietnam Battle draft with a medical analysis of bone spurs, drew swift criticism from veterans’ teams.
“Don’t simply be outraged by #PresidentMayhem’s newest asinine feedback,” Paul Rieckhoff, the founding father of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, wrote in a Twitter post. “Take motion to assist vets dealing with TBIs,” a reference to traumatic mind harm.
The deputy commander of the American-led army operation in Iraq mentioned the Protection Division was placing the service members by means of medical examinations to see if the complications and different complaints amounted to traumatic stress accidents. Among the affected troops had been mere ft away from the place the Iranian missiles struck, though they had been in protecting bunkers, Protection Division officers mentioned.
“I haven’t seen the president’s feedback, so I received’t touch upon them,” Maj. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich of the Air Power instructed reporters throughout a information convention on the Pentagon. “I in all probability wouldn’t even when I had.”
He added: “I can simply let you know from the attitude of a commander on the bottom that we’re going to take signs from any sort of harm as critically as we are able to.”
At a separate occasion earlier within the day, Normal Grynkewich denied that the White Home had influenced how and when the army acknowledged that a number of American troops on the Asad base in Iraq had concussion signs because of the Iranian missile strikes and had been being flown to a United States army hospital in Germany for remedy.
“We weren’t influenced by anybody,” he mentioned.
The Trump administration had initially mentioned that there have been no accidents from the Iranian assault. If there was any delay in reporting the accidents, Normal Grynkewich mentioned, it was as a result of “it takes a little bit of time for info to work its method up the chain of command” and finally to the Pentagon.
He famous that signs from some mind accidents usually are not instantly obvious.
“T.B.I. could be very tough to evaluate, particularly within the wake of an assault,” the final instructed reporters after talking on the Air Power Affiliation’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Research in Arlington, Va. “You’re searching for individuals with cuts and bruises and people kinds of issues. You’re wanting to verify we didn’t have any fatalities.”
Normal Grynkewich mentioned solely then did commanders take the following step of assessing which army personnel had been near sure blasts, together with those that had been in guard towers when the Iranian missiles hit.
The variety of troops affected was within the “teenagers,” the final mentioned. He didn’t know the severity of the accidents however mentioned the affected troops had been transferred to the army hospital at Landstuhl, Germany, out of “an abundance of warning.”
“We’ll do no matter we have to do to maintain these troopers and airmen,” he mentioned.
Protection Secretary Mark T. Esper on Wednesday deflected questions from reporters in Pensacola, Fla, after they pointed to Mr. Trump’s feedback that appeared to dismiss the severity of potential head accidents brought on by the Iranian assault.
“That is principally outpatient stuff,” Mr. Esper mentioned. “I’m not a physician, I’m not the one evaluating them. These are calls that can be made by the medical professionals available making these examinations.”
Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting from Pensacola, Fla.