Aaron Glantz; impervious to facts
The leftist blogs are dragging out all of the PTSD crap the can find in reaction to last week’s shootings at Fort Hood. That’s how I found this interview from about six months ago by Aaron Glantz.
Aaron Glantz calls himself a journalist, and I suppose he is, marginally in that the Left gives him a megaphone to broadcast his drivel. He’s written wildly successful books like “How America Lost Iraq”, “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations” and lately “The War Comes Home; Washington’s War Against Veterans“.
Some of the IVAW refugees tell me that he screwed them out of the money he promised them for their stories for the Winter Soldiers book, so that’s how I approached this interview he did on this Progressive.org radio interview; this interview he did on this Progressive.org radio interview;
He begins by proving that he can’t count. He tells how he spent three years off and on in Iraq between March 2003 and February 2005. I dunno how he squeezed 3 years into 24 months, but apparently if you count 2003, 2004 and 2005 that makes three years, huh?
The he goes into counting PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury cases in the military – he’s says there’s 300,000 TBIs and 300,000 PTSD cases in the military since 2003. Funny, but in May 2008, there were 40,000 PTSD cases across all of the services since 2003. So unless there have been 260,000 new PTSD cases in the last year or so, Glantz is lying. As for TBIs – that right wing propaganda outlet TruthOut says there were 10,000 at the end of 2008 across all of the services.
In the interview, Glantz says that the Bush Administration hid these 600,000 casualties – both of the links above are to TruthOut, hardly a Bush mouthpiece. He says “the current administration” (he can’t seem to call it the Obama Administration as easily as he named the Bush Administration, for some reason) is continuing the practice.
Then he goes on to recount how he was almost killed in Iraq because US soldiers target journalists. He said he was stopped by a soldier from “Alabama – possibly Mississippi” whose helmet was too big for his head…and, oh…he was a really skinny and stupid-looking redneck who couldn’t tell Glantz wasn’t an Iraqi because Glantz has Mediterranean features. because all of our troops are stupid, racist rednecks – is it any wonder they all have PTSD when they have to deal with idiots like Glantz as well as al Qaeda.
Then, even though his books are about the war in Iraq, he says he avoided US troops (because they were killing more journalists than al Qaeda). How can he write a book about our war in Iraq if he avoided US troops…for three years compressed into two?
Well, Aaron, since the first half of your interview was bullshit, how can I believe the rest of it? If you’re interested, I’ve seen all of Glantz’ books in the bargain bin at Amazon – shipping will cost you more than the books.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Usual Suspects
can someone please explain to me how a servicemember gets PTSD and never goes to a combat zone?
I just don’t get it.
It is theoretically possible that individuals whom treat traumatized can undergo a sort of transferrence and develop various symptoms themselves.
However, as I understand it, this particular phenomenon is rare, quite rare.
Besides, the evidence does not point in that particular direction at all. Chanting “Allah Akhbar”, specifically targeting a center for deployment processing? The Left is clearly full of shit on that one.
The Left being full of shit in pushing the PTSD meme here. They are either extremely idiotic or seeking political opportunity. Probably a combination of both.
“PTSD By Proxy”! It’s the trendy new neurosis!
Credit the democrat PC police with the death of 13 and the destruction of thousands of lives. The muzzie terrorists hate for America was known and not reported for fear of being called a racist.
I’m getting a bad case of PTSD toward democrats, or would it just be a case of going postal on them?
As a vet of Vietnam (in country 365 days) I believe PTSD is a made up excuse for everything and a reason for nothing. Actually is was made up by whacko doctors to make millionaires of whacko doctors. Use the term doctors loosely.
GWB and Laura quietly visited the wounded and their families. Hundreds of press releases preceed President O’Dumbo and the Moose’s planned visit.
“Here’s a theory I have, that won’t be very popular; Hasan was/is a cheesy pogue pussy. He liked the amenities of being stationed near his home and living in the big city with a Major’s salary and suddenly he found himself at nasty-ass Fort Hood (I spent two years there and every minute trying to leave) looking at a deployment to a nastier place.”
So then with the news that this scumbag went to the same shithole of a mosque that the 9/11 hijackers attended can we say he did this because he is a violent Muslim??? He is a warrior for the Muslims who do not want to carry guns but support his sorry ass…
Or do we have to keep pretending that Islam is the religion of peace? Is the fact that only a small percentage of the United States population are at any one time engaged in war mean that the majority of the rest of us are against the violence the Marines commit in our defense?
SOrry Charlie–duno about the PTSD stats–but both RAND and the military said at end of 2008 that it’s an estimated 300,000 and counting. TBI’s are not a joke–and Iraq & Afghanistan Vet’s Assoc said in Jan 2009 alone we lost more military to suicide than to the enemy. If that doesn’t make you take TBI”s and PTSD more seriously–and right, left, center or fringe–doesn’t matter–it’s a major issue our country–and those so affected face.
Z:
Funny, but the only people I can find that are pushing this 300,000 number are people like you who profit from treating TBI. If you look at the RAND study, they admit that their number is a guess – more accurately, a shot in the dark;
“The findings were extrapolated from a survey of 1,926 recently returned servicemembers from across the military services. The sample was designed to represent the 1.6 million troops who have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.”
At least the government’s number is people they’re actually treating for TBI. If you think I’m not taking this seriously, you haven’t been here long enough. But at the same time, I’m not going to line the pockets of charlatans like Glantz and you. Find another way to get free advertising for your crapola, ya nut.
+10 points for quoting IAVA and getting the name wrong though.
I hate that this stuff gets so politicized. I do believe the numbers of PTSD are higher than the military is reporting, because the military won’t diagnose someone with PTSD right away and many military psychiatrists have reported being under pressure not to diagnose PTSD. I really hate that this shooting is causing people to line up on each side of the PTSD issue. Whether or not Hassan had PTSD should not be used as an excuse to push one side or the other.
I also think that the military statistics are low because there’s a huge discrepancy between the numbers the VA reports and the ones the military does. I don’t think people magically only get PTSD /after/ they get out of the service.
Army Sergeant,
Please explain how Hassan got PTSD when he never had a Traumatic experience while serving?
I didn’t say he had PTSD. I said I hate how the Hassan situation is making people line up against actual people who have PTSD, or statistics of higher numbers of PTSD sufferers.