Former Protection Secretary Mark Esper mentioned Tuesday that former President Trump’s recent remarks downplaying U.S. troop mind accidents in Iraq are “clearly not correct.”
“Yeah, that is, that is clearly not correct,” he responded when requested by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if the previous protection official noticed these mind accidents as simply “complications.”
Esper, who served within the Trump administration, pointed to numerous troopers who self-reported “very severe” damages.
“You already know, we talked about this afterward,” he continued. “I wrote about this in my memoir. We went via that whole night time making an attempt to get an evaluation of what the injury was completed to our … the hurt completed to our troops.”
His feedback got here shortly after Trump, throughout a marketing campaign cease in Milwaukee, dismissed accidents sustained by U.S. troops throughout a 2020 Iranian missile strike on an Iraqi base that left dozens with traumatic mind accidents. He was responding to a reporter who requested if his administration ought to have responded extra strongly.
Trump, who withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal throughout his first time period in workplace, argued through the rally that there was “no one ever harder on Iran” than he was.
“So to begin with, injured. What does injured imply? Injured means — you imply as a result of that they had a headache? As a result of the bombs by no means hit the fort,” the previous president replied.
“And for those who had been a truthful reporter, which you’re not, you’ll inform the next: None of these very correct missiles hit our fort,” he added. “All of them hit exterior, and there was no one damage aside from the sound was loud, and a few folks mentioned that damage, and I settle for that.”
Greater than 100 U.S. troops suffered traumatic mind accidents following the strike, defense officials said on the time. The incident was initiated as payback for Trump’s order to assassinate Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Esper mentioned on CNN that “troops defended terribly effectively, however once we acquired up the following morning, we had no accidents, historically, as you’ll know, however over time, we got here to study, as troops did self-reporting, and actually got here to reported a few of their signs that we had, I believe dozens, over 100 circumstances reported, and a number of other had been very severe, traumatic mind accidents.”
The previous Division of Protection chief, who mentioned in late March that he wouldn’t be voting for Trump within the 2024 election, recalled visiting injured service members once they had been recovering at Walter Reed Nationwide Army Medical Middle in Maryland.
“And it took a while to find these once more, however ultimately over 100 troops reported injuries [and] a few of them had been very severe,” Esper, who joined CNN as a contributor in February, mentioned.
“I keep in mind visiting a soldier at Walter Reed Hospital, a pair months later and speaking concerning the assault and what he skilled, and so it is fairly a traumatic night time,” he added.
