Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 03.30.09
Posted by Daniel on March 30

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.

MUST READS

(1) Obama rules out US troops in Pakistan

In a Sunday interview on CBS' Face the Nation, President Obama ruled out deploying U.S. troops on the ground in Pakistan. "Our plan does not change the recognition of Pakistan as a sovereign government," the president said. He also warned that the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan will not be an "open-ended commitment of infinite resources." "[Afghanistan] is gonna be hard," Obama said. "I'm under no illusions. If it was easy, it would have already been completed." Meanwhile, in a separate interview on Fox News Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that while democracy is a long-term goal for Afghanistan, the short-term objectives for U.S. forces in the region have narrowed under Obama's new strategy. Neither Obama nor Gates ruled out the continued use of Predator drone missile strikes against militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Watch a clip of President Obama's Face the Nation interview below.

(2) Gates: No change soon on `don't ask, don't tell'

In the same Fox interview Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said both he and President Obama have "a lot on [their] plates right now" and that the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" with respect to gays serving in the military has been pushed "down the road a little bit." Previously, the White House said President Obama had begun consulting with Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on how to lift the ban; however, Gates said the dialogue has not progressed very far.

(3) Patients of Problem VA Clinics Infected with Hepatitis

A VA spokesperson said Friday that viral infections, including hepatitis, have been found in 16 patients exposed to contaminated equipment at VA medical centers in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Augusta, Georgia and Miami, Florida. In the past several weeks, the VA confirmed more than 10,000 veterans have been warned to get blood tests because they could have been exposed to contamination during colonoscopies and other procedures at the facilities. On Friday, the Miami Veterans Affairs hospital suspended colonoscopies pending an investigation by VA officials.

(4) EU to send Afghanistan more cash, police trainers

On Friday, European Union foreign ministers met to discuss ways to train Afghan security forces more quickly and effectively while keeping the 27-nation bloc's focus on rebuilding Afghanistan as opposed to bolstering EU troops in the region. Currently, the EU plans to double its contingent of police trainers to 400 this summer. Additionally, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the EU plans to announce more financial aid at a U.N. conference on Afghanistan this week in The Hague, Netherlands. Since 2002, the EU has given roughly $1.7 billion in aid to Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN

A dozen militants attacked a police training school Monday near Lahore, Pakistan, killing at least 27 policemen and wounding more than 90 people.

On Friday, an Afghan army soldier opened fire on U.S. forces in northeast Afghanistan killing two U.S. servicemen and wounding a third before killing himself. The violence continued throughout the weekend with insurgent attacks and a roadside bomb killing 10 Afghan police officers in at least four incidents across the country. Along the border, Taliban militants also kidnapped 11 Pakistani policemen on Sunday in an attack on a security post in the Khyber region. In the Nahr Surk district of Helmand province, Afghan and coalition troops killed 12 militants during a gunbattle that erupted during a raid on a compound.

Meanwhile, Afghan media reported conflicting accounts Sunday that the country's Supreme Court has ruled that President Hamid Karzai should remain in office until a new leader is chosen in a late summer election even though the country's constitution says his term expires May 21. A spokesman for the Supreme Court denied an decision has been reached.

In a weekend editorial, Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation counters criticisms that Afghanistan is the "graveyard of empires" and that continued U.S-intervention will send America the route of the Soviet Union circa the late 1980s. Bergen argues that if the U.S.-led coalition wants to return Afghanistan to the state it was before the 1979 Soviet invasion, then it will have to focus on bringing both security and economic benefits to Afghans starting with a court system capable of ridding the vast opium/heroin industry that finances the Taliban. By his suggestion, Washington should encourage Kabul to sign a treaty that will allow key heroin traffickers to be tried in the United States.

But Nguyen Huu Nguyen - a former North Vietnamese Army officer during the Tet Offensive- counters in a separate interview that the U.S. is making the same mistake in Afghanistan that it made in Vietnam more than 40 years ago. “If the U.S. builds up its forces in Afghanistan,” Nguyen said, “it will probably sink deeper into a quagmire.” The success of a U.S. counterinsurgency, Nguyen argues, can only rest on separating the guerrillas from the population they depend on.

IRAQ

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces swept through a central Baghdad slum Sunday, disarming Sunnis from a government-allied paramilitary group - the Awakening Council in Fadhil- to quell a two-day uprising launched to protest the Saturday arrest of their leader Adel al-Mashhadani. Col. Bill Buckner, a U.S. military spokesman, said al-Mashhadani was arrested under a December 2008 warrant charging him with seven offenses including extortion, roadside bombings against Iraqi forces, robbery and ties to al-Qaida in Iraq. al-Mashhadani's followers protested the arrest calling it "part of Iran’s plan to dominate Iraq."

Some 200 prominent, moderate followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have reportedly broken from his movement, forming a splinter group called the Shura al-Ulla'ama or Clerics Advisory, in exchange for amnesty from Iraq's government. According to interviews, the group = which wants to distance itself from the violent elements of the Sadr movement- plans to perform social services like those offered by Sadr but with the ultimate goal of running candidates in national elections in December.

In his Sunday Face the Nation interview, President Obama said he will not consider speeding up the troop pullout from Iraq even though security has improved and violence has decreased. On Tuesday, British forces will formally begin to pull-out of Iraq with the U.S. military taking control of the British-led coalition base in Basra. Britain is expected to fully withdraw from the country by late July.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

U.S. military officials are reporting that the Department of Defense's $4 billion electronic health-record system, AHLTA, is so unreliable and difficult to use that military physicians are now listing it among their top three reasons for leaving service. The chief complaint remains the systems inability to "seamlessly access complete patient data from the battlefield," between military treatment facilities, and between the DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) met Friday with L. Tammy Duckworth, President Obama’s nominee to be the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Akaka praised Duckworth, who is scheduled to testify before Congress at a nomination hearing on Wednesday, for her motivation "to improve the system by her first hand experience as a wounded warrior following combat in Iraq."

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

The Senate convenes at 11:00 a.m.

FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST

Begin consideration of the Budget Resolution reported by the Budget committee.There will be no roll call votes during Monday's session.

COMMITTEE REPORTS and PRESS RELEASES of INTEREST

Akaka Introduces Omnibus Veterans’ Benefits Bill: Bill would improve insurance and other benefits for veterans and family members
Akaka on the New GI Bill: Failure is Not an Option: Chairman holds hearing on VA's progress in using IT to improve benefits delivery

FUTURE NOMINATIONS and APPOINTMENTS of INTEREST

April 1, 2009- SVAC will hold a hearing on the nominations of W. Scott Gould to be the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs and Tammy Duckworth to be the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. 10:00 a.m.; 418 Russell

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

April 1, 2009 -Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wounded Warrior issues. Officials from VA and DoD will be invited to testify. 2:30 p.m.; Location: TBD (Prudhomme)
April 22, 2009 - SVAC will hold a hearing on pending health legislation. 2:30 p.m.; 418 Russell (Ballenger)
May 6, 2009 - SVAC will hold a hearing on pending benefits legislation. 9:30 a.m.; 418 Russell (Ballenger)
May 7, 2009 - Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, hearing on the VA Fiscal Year 2010 Budget. Secretary Shinseki will be invited to testify. 2:30 p.m.; Location: TBD (Lukas)
May 21, 2009 - SVAC will mark-up pending legislation. 9:30 a.m.; 418 Russell (Ballenger)

THE HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES

The House convenes at 12:30 p.m.

FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST

Votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m. Suspensions (16 Bills)

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

April 2, 2009 - House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity hearing: Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Programs 1:00 p.m.; 334 Cannon
April 20, 2009 - Full House Veterans Affairs Committee Field Hearing on Building the Critical Health Infrastructure for Veterans in Jacksonville, Florida Noon; Florida Community College, 501 West State Street, Jacksonville, Florida
April 21, 2009 - Full House Veterans Affairs Committee Field Hearing on Building the Critical Health Infrastructure for Veterans in Orlando, Florida 9:30 a.m.; Board of County Commission Chambers, 201 South Rosalind Avenue, Orlando, Florida
April 28, 2009 - House Appropriations, Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, will hold a hearing on the VA Fiscal Year 2010 Budget. Secretary Shinseki will be invited to testify. 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., Location TBD (Lukas)
April 30, 2009 - House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health hearing: Charting the VA’s Progress on Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Our Veterans: Discussion of Funding, Mental Health Strategies Plan, and the Uniform Mental Health Services Handbook 10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon