Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday that former President Donald Trump's recent comments downplaying brain injuries suffered by U.S. troops in Iraq are “clearly not accurate.”
When asked by CNN's Caitlan Collins if the former defense official considers these brain injuries to be just “headaches,” he replied, “Oh, that's obviously not accurate.”
Esper, who served in the Trump administration, pointed to a number of soldiers who self-reported “very severe” losses.
“You know, we talked about this afterwards,” he continued. “I wrote about this in my memoirs. We worked all night to get an assessment of the damage done to us, the damage done to our troops.”
His comments come just days after President Trump was on the campaign trail in Milwaukee to deny injuries sustained by U.S. troops in a 2020 Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base that left dozens with traumatic brain injuries. It was done. He responded to a reporter who asked whether the administration should have responded more forcefully.
Trump, who withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal during his first term in office, claimed at a rally that “nobody is tougher on Iran” than he is.
“So, first of all, injuries. What do you mean, injured? By injured, do you mean you had a headache? Because no bomb ever fell on the fort.” the former president replied.
“And if you were a truthful reporter, you would say: None of the highly accurate missiles hit our fortifications,” he added. “Everyone got hit outside. No one was hurt except for the loud noise. Some people said it hurt, but I accept that.”
Defense officials said at the time that more than 100 U.S. soldiers suffered traumatic brain injuries after the airstrike. The incident began as President Trump's retaliation for ordering the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
“The military protected us very well, but we woke up the next morning and traditionally there were no injuries,” Esper said on CNN. “As you know, over time, the military was self-reporting. So I really understood that.” People who came to us to report some of the symptoms that we experienced, there are probably dozens, over 100 cases reported, some of which were very severe traumatic brain injuries. ”
In late March, the former Pentagon chief, who said he would not vote for Trump in the 2024 election, visited wounded service members while they were recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. I remembered that.
“And it took us a while to find them again, but in the end we had over 100 soldiers reporting injuries.” [and] Some of them were very serious,” said Esper, who joined CNN as a contributor in February.
“I remember visiting the soldier at Walter Reed Hospital a few months later and talking about the attack and what he went through. So it's a very traumatic night,” he added.
