Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 06.19.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy on June 19

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA. Prefer to receive real time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking? Follow us on Twitter at @iavapressroom.

MUST READS

(1) Senate approves war supplemental, stop-loss provisions

Despite complaints about the add-ons that pushed the total more than $20 billion above the funding request, the Senate approved in a 91-5 vote late Thursday the Obama Administration's $106 billion supplemental bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill, which now travels to the Oval Office for the President's final signature, includes about $80 billion to finance the wars through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30th as well as $534 million in retroactive stop-loss payments and a provision for ensure that full Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits can be transferred to the children of servicemembers who have died on active-duty since 9/11. It also provides $4.5 billion, $1.9 billion above what the president requested, for lightweight mine-resistant vehicles, called MRAPs, and $2.7 billion for eight C-17 and seven C-130 cargo planes that the Pentagon did not ask for. Click here to read a legislative dispatch about the supplemental from IAVA's Legislative Associate Tom Tarantino.

(2) Alcohol abuse by GIs soars since '03

According to Army data reviewed by USA Today, the rate of Army soldiers enrolled in treatment programs for alcohol dependency or abuse has nearly doubled since 2003, in part due to growing stress of repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers diagnosed by Army substance abuse counselors with alcoholism or alcohol abuse, such as binge drinking, increased from 6.1 per 1,000 soldiers in 2003 to an estimated 11.4 as of this past March. In a statement, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed concern saying, "I'm sure there are many factors for the rising numbers (of enrollments) ... but I can't believe the stress our people are under after eight years of combat isn't taking a toll."

(3) HUD, VA program aims to help homeless vets

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a partnership Thursday with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide housing and assistance to an estimated 10,000 homeless veterans throughout the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico. Funded with $75 million, the program will allow officials to give out 10,000 rental assistance vouchers specifically aimed at homeless veterans in their communities. According to the program guidelines, local housing authorities will work with case mangers at VA medical centers to determine eligible veterans. Click here to learn more.

(4) Hey Lindsay Lohan! Did You Hear About the Major Victory for Thousands of Stop-Lossed Troops?

As celebrity headlines dominate "news," IAVA Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff recaps today in a column some major achievements reached on Capitol Hill this week for veterans and their families. "This week, we’ve seen John and Kate inch closer to divorce, the President stand trial in the court of public opinion for fly-homicide, and another Washington elite publicize infidelity via press release...," he writes. "[But] this week, the House of Representatives began approving a landmark budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The proposed 2010 VA budget represents a 15 percent increase over 2009 levels. If passed, this budget would set the stage for the 21^st Century VA that the President and Secretary Shinseki have promised." Click here to learn more about advanced appropriations and other progress on Capitol Hill this week.

AFGHANISTAN

The U.S. military announced via its Twitter and Facebook pages early this morning that two coalition service members were killed in an improvised explosive device attack on a convoy in southern Afghanistan. Details were withheld pending an investigation. Separately, a bomb strapped to a parked bicycle exploded near a construction office in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing one employee and an 11 year old child.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press has a feature today on the difficulties U.S. Marines are facing in southern Afghanistan trying to recruit local Afghans to join a security force and turn the tide of the Taliban insurgency. "When we walk through a town and it is just U.S. Marines and no Afghan forces, if I'm a local, how does that inspire my confidence in the government?" asked Gen. Larry Nicholson, the commander of a brigade of 10,000 recently arrived Marines. "It doesn't. It's just another group of foreigners walking through our neighborhood." According to Nicholson, he does not yet have enough local police and army units to secure the south and that far too many American-trained units are unable to conduct missions independently.

Stateside, Imran Khan, Pakistani opposition leader and cricket legend, said in a speech in Washington, D.C. on Thursday that a Pakistani offensive in the Swat Valley is threatening to unwind the country and he urged the United States to wind down its own involvement in the region. Khan said the Pakistani military faced a crisis of morale, estimating that 25 percent of the troops involved in the push in the troubled northwest belonged to the same Pashtun ethnicity as local people. "The US must think of an exit strategy in Afghanistan. As long as there is chaos in Afghanistan, or there is fighting going on, there will be no peace in Pakistan's tribal area," Khan said. Khan, who met US congressional leaders including Senator John Kerry, said that the United States must begin to end its military campaign in neighboring Afghanistan first launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

IRAQ

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill said Thursday the United States will meet a deadline to withdraw combat forces from Iraqi urban areas by the end of June. In a conversation with reporters in Washington, Ambassador Hill said there should be no concern among Iraqis that the United States might not adhere to the deadline. "What I know is that we're going to comply fully with our obligations under the security agreement. We signed that agreement and we will absolutely comply fully with it, " Hill said. "And that means pulling all combat forces out of the cities. And I think what's important to understand is that in most cities in Iraq, our combat forces are already out of the cities. So this is not some brand-new model that we're not sure is going to work." Following Hill's remarks, however, violence continued in Mosul on Friday with gunmen killing Izzat Abdulla, coach of Iraq's national karate team, as well as one soldier and a bystander near an Iraqi army post.

Separately, Sgt. Miguel A. Vegaquinones, a U.S. soldier charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a comrade in Iraq, entered plea negotiations Thursday instead of facing a hearing. Vegaquinones allegedly discharged a round of ammunition, killing 20 year old Pfc. Sean P. McCune, while cleaning his weapon following a guard duty shift on Jan. 11 in Samarra. Vegaquinones had been due to face an Article 32 hearing and a 10-year prison sentence.

Meanwhile, days after coming under fire for impaneling an inquiry into Britain's decision making process leading up to the Iraq invasion in 2003, Prime Minister Gordon Brown reversed course on Thursday saying the panel could hold at least some hearings in public and take some testimony under oath.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday that they believe Twitter and other Web 2.0 social networking media are a clear advantage for U.S. interests abroad. “I think it’s a huge win for freedom around the world because this monopoly of information is no longer in the hands of the government,” said Gates, referring to the post-election turmoil in Iran over the past week. “[Further], there is no question that the easy availability or the easy access to Western communications and media played a part in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe." Both Gates and Mullen said the Pentagon is trying to better understand the communication tools preferred by millions of young people from the bulk of their twenty-something U.S. forces to the foreign populations in which the U.S. is engaged. Recently, U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan unveiled a special Twitter page (@usfora) to disseminate more real-time information about troop and humanitarian activities in the region.

As recruiting number rise amid the recession, a federal judge Thursday struck down two Northern California city ordinances banning military recruitment of minors, finding the laws violated the U.S. Constitution. In November, residents in Arcata and Eureka, California voted to pass identical Youth Protection Acts ordering military recruiters to refrain from contacting people younger than 18 or face a fine.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Next week, First Lady Michelle Obama and members of the Obama cabinet will fan out across 15 states and the District of Columbia to participate in community service projects as part of a high-profile effort called United We Serve summer, which will run from Monday through the National Day of Service and Remembrance on Sept. 11. As part of the effort, Defense Secretary Robert Gates will visit wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Separately, VA Secretary General Eric Shinseki will help volunteer drivers transport patients to medical appointments at VA medical centers.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The Senate and House are not in session today.

IAVA IN THE NEWS

Outlet: TPM Cafe

Title: Hey Lindsay Lohan! Did You Hear About the Major Victory for Thousands of Stop-Lossed Troops?

Date: Friday, June 19th

Representative: Paul Rieckhoff

Outlet: Huffington Post

Title: Hey Lindsay Lohan! Did You Hear About the Major Victory for Thousands of Stop-Lossed Troops?

Date: Friday, June 19th

Representative: Paul Rieckhoff

Outlet: Military.com