Iraq Veterans Group Gives McCain a 'D' Grade

Posted by Robert Zimmer on 10.09.2008

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) gives John McCain a 'D' rating for his (lack of) support of veterans, while clueless Cindy McCain blames PTSD on lack of training.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), a non-profit, non-partisan veterans group, has issued ‘report cards' for members of Congress, grading them on their support for those Americans who have served in the two current wars. One would expect that Senator John McCain, himself a Vietnam war veteran, would receive an ‘A'. Not so – IAVA has given McCain a ‘D'. McCain seems to have taken a cue from the incompetent man he seeks to replace, by publicly trumpeting his support for the troops while quietly working behind the scenes to undermine our military. Most shockingly, Senator McCain recently voted against the new GI Bill, which allows Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to go to college as thanks for their service, just as the government did for World War II vets. McCain's excuse? He was concerned that fewer service members would re-up their enlistments if they had the chance to go to college. Perhaps it has not occurred to McCain that the real reason military service members are not re-enlisting is because they cannot stomach a third or fourth tour of duty in Iraq. They have done their job, fighting heroically to compensate for the incompetence of their civilian leaders, and all they ask is the chance to have a normal life after their enlistment is done – including the chance to get an education.

Just as puzzling is an interview Cindy McCain gave to Marie Claire magazine recently, in which she suggested well-trained soldiers (such as her husband, who barely graduated from the Naval Academy) were unlikely to return home from the battlefield with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In response to a question about whether her husband still suffered from PTSD from his Vietnam experience, Mrs. McCain replied, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. The guys who had the trouble were the 18-year-olds who were drafted. [Sen. McCain] was trained, he went to the Naval Academy, he was a trained United States naval officer, and so he knew what he was doing."

Not only is this ignorant – anyone who has served in combat knows that PTSD is an equal opportunity offender regardless of training -- it is also elitist. In 2005, 120 Iraq veterans were attempting suicide per week. Were they just all poorly trained? Strangely, many veterans reported that staff at local VA hospitals were discouraged by higher-ups from diagnosing vets with PTSD, favoring instead the diagnosis of "adjustment disorder." The difference is not small – it's the difference between comprehensive mental health treatment, versus simply being told to go home and deal with it. Is it any wonder we have so many homeless vets? What a disgrace.

I come from a military family who has served for two generations in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and Iraq. I have seen the disastrous scourge of PTSD first-hand. Most recently, my cousin's Humvee was destroyed by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad. Two of his comrades were killed; my cousin pulled another from the burning Humvee and saved his life. I saw him when he came home on leave in 2006, and he was unhinged. He couldn't sleep, traumatized by nightmares; he was full of rage, and told me none of the enlisted men he served with had any idea why we were fighting in Iraq. John McCain was an early supporter of the war and if a veterans group, the IAVA, gives him a ‘D' grade, veterans who are undecided in this election should sit up and take note.

For the record, the IAVA gave Barack Obama a ‘B'.