Open Letter To President Trump On Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Comments
Military Families Speak Out are deeply appalled by President Trump’s recent remarks regarding the severe injuries suffered by US Service members as a result of Iran’s retaliatory strike that took place on January 8, 2020 at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. During a press conference, President Trump downplayed the seriousness of the over 109 diagnosed cases of traumatic brain injuries suffered by our troops. Below is a letter from members of Military Families Speak Out demanding an apology from President Trump and Defense Secretary Mike Pompeo for their callous and offensive remarks:
Open Letter to President Trump,
Initially, you and the Pentagon reported that no US service members were injured or killed in the January 8th Iranian missile attack, which was in retaliation for the Jan 2 US drone strike that killed a top Iranian general. At an address after the attack you said:
“No Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime. We suffered no casualties. All of our soldiers are safe and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases”. Later during the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, after the public learned that US service members had been diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injuries, you were asked, “So you don’t consider potential traumatic brain injury serious?. You replied,” No, I do not consider that to be bad injuries, no” and referred to such injuries as “headaches”.
Such callous remarks are deeply offensive and are evidence of your serious lack of education on this matter. As of today, we have not heard any admission from you, the Pentagon or Secretary of Defense, Mike Pompeo, that traumatic brain injuries are one of the signature wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and often considered by medical professionals as a grave injury. As Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces your statements have left our troops, their families and loved ones feeling deeply hurt and betrayed. Our loved ones have been the victims of these unjust wars for almost 20 years. It also dealt a major setback to much of the efforts that many of us, including the VA Administration, have spent educating the public about the seriousness of Traumatic Brain Injury and other invisible wounds of war, such as PTSD, moral injury, death by suicide and military sexual trauma.
As many military families know firsthand, Traumatic Brain Injury is serious and often causes permanent neurological damage. The effects of TBI on our returning troops may not be obvious to many, but we know how debilitating this injury can be and that it has destroyed many US Service member’s health to the degree that it has caused many of them to be unable to lead physically and emotionally functional lives. Military Families Speak Out and our troops expect better of you and the Department of Defense and want and deserve an apology. Such recognition of the injuries caused by these unjust wars will go a long way in helping our loved ones begin to heal from lifelong injuries sustained by our current wars of aggression and remind the public that it is long past the time for us to end these wars and bring all of our troops home.
MFSO Position Statement on Iraq and Iran
Again, we are in a very precarious position in the Middle East.
MFSO believes that every effort should be made to resolve this issue with no military intervention. We need to bring all our troops home and utilize diplomacy to solve any conflicts with Iran. We strongly oppose the presence of our military troops in the area, which only serves to increase tension If Iraq wants the U.S. to leave their country, we should honor that request.
It is clear, with the release of the Afghanistan Papers last month, that our government has no truth, accountability, or strategy in conflict zones. We perpetuate violence, confusion and chaos.
Our presence in Iraq only deepens the suffering of the ordinary citizens and do nothing to make peace with those governments.
We call upon President Trump and Congress to deflate this aggressive posturing and bring our troops home now.
MFSO Newsletter – March 2020
Southern California MFSO at the Global Day of Protest – No War on Iran! US Out of the Middle East!
MFSO Newsletter – January 2020
Troops Home Now?
Editorials from MFSO members:
By Bill Habedank
Red Wing, MN
Just before Christmas I had a letter to the editor published in my local newspaper that everyone’s New Years resolution should be working toward world peace. What influenced my urge to write this editorial was the release of the Afghan Papers which said that we had been lied to about what was going on in Afghanistan, just as we had been with Viet Nam and Iraq.
Reaching that goal now will be exceedingly more difficult with the assassination of Iran’s military leader.
So what do we do now as people who want peace. We must mobilize everywhere we can by speaking to friends, local politicians and Members of Congress and civil disobedience if necessary. We must convey the utter insanity of starting another war (as if we weren’t still at war!). A war with Iran will be a disaster for the entire world and yes that includes citizens of the United States. The potential for a world war is high. There will be no winners.
The real losers will be unprivileged people because of austerity in social programs that provide real security. This has been the case with every war. If a new war with Iran is to keep US citizens safe it will do just the opposite. This war will make any attempts to provide the real security of healthcare, education, a place to live, and a liveable environment impossible. The voices of reason and sanity must prevail. You can be that voice. Silence will be our doom. There is still time to make your New Year’s resolution to work for peace.
Bill and Diane have a son in the Army
Join the Global Day of Protest, Saturday January 25:
No War on Iran!
https://www.unacpeace.org
In the News:
MFSO member Mary Hladky in MO and Rossana and Arturo Cambron, Pat Alviso, About Face and VFP leaders John Motter and Anthony Palacios in Los Angeles at No War with Iran rallies
Who Signs Up to Fight? Makeup of U.S. Recruits Shows Glaring Disparity
More and more, new recruits come from the same small number of counties and are the children of old recruits.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/
Pompeo: US troops ‘to continue mission’ in Iraq
The Iraqi government is asking for the withdrawal of American soldiers
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/
Everything You Need to Know About Vets’ and Caregivers’ New Base Access
Some veterans are being granted access to military commissary, exchange and MWR
https://www.military.com/
US Dismisses Iraq Request to Work on a Troop Withdrawal Plan
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s caretaker prime minister asked Washington to start working out a road map for an American troop withdrawal, but the U.S. State Department on Friday bluntly rejected the request,
https://www.military.com/
Troops on Middle East Snap Deployment May Be Entitled to These Extra Pays
Here is a rundown of pays that service members deployed during tensions with Iran may be entitled to receive, according to Defense Department guidelines
https://www.military.com/
Note: The opinions reflected above and in future editorials are not a reflection of any official stance approved by the MFSO board, which meets monthly and posts official positions decided by the board on our website. Your responses and opinions are welcome. If you would like to send your half page editorial on any MFSO related issue, please send to mfsooc@earthlink.net
MFSO-Newsletter-January-2020.html (928 downloads )
Reach Out to Us
MFSO Newsletter November 2019
Marine Iraq War veteran to be deported Tuesday to El Salvador (Marine Times)
Marine Iraq War veteran to be deported Tuesday to El Salvador (Marine Times)
“…Retired Air Force Master Sgt. Jeff Merrick said that deporting the Marine veteran after he served his prison sentence was a second punishment after he already paid his debt to society.
It’s “a real injustice to allow a veteran to be deported just because he got in trouble with the law,” Merrick said. “He paid his dues, now he is getting a lifetime sentence to a country he knows nothing about.”
Merrick is a board member of Military Families Speak Out, an organization of military and veterans families calling for improving the treatment of veterans when returning from war.
Merrick compared Segovia-Benitez’s deportation with failures at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals around the country.
“It’s kind of like, ‘I’ll call you a hero until I have to pay something, once you’re out of the service I don’t care about you,'” Merrick said….”