Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 09.03.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy on September 3

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 @IAVAPressRoom.

MUST READS

1) Public Support for White House on Afghan War Ebbs

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, public support for the war in Afghanistan is also ebbing. According to a CBS News poll released this week, 41 percent of Americans polled want troop levels in Afghanistan decreased, compared with 33 percent in April. Far fewer Americans — 25 percent — want troop levels increased, compared with 39 percent in April.  In addition, President Obama’s approval rating for his handling of Afghanistan has dropped eight points since April, to 48 percent.  Amid the shift in support, White House officials said President Obama took Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal's newly finished review of military strategy in Afghanistan to Camp David on Wednesday where he will review it during the vacation break.  At the Pentagon, officials speculated by the end of the process the overall request for additional forces could be relatively small, below a standing request for 10,000 additional troops that McChrystal's predecessor left behind.

2) 'Surge home' overwhelms Veterans Affairs clinics

The Christian Science Monitor profiles IAVA Member Veteran Reynaldo Leal, Jr. today about his struggles trying to navigate the VA bureaucracy and access VA mental health care in south Texas.  "I don't doubt that everybody who works at the VA wants nothing else than to help veterans," said Leal, who served two deployment to Iraq. "Are they being given the tools to do that? That is another question."  Though he eventually sought mental-health assistance at a Veterans Affairs clinic in the Rio Grande Valley, Leal had to wait a month or more for appointments with the sole psychologist there.  Click here to read his story.

3) The Voice of a New Generation of Veterans

While White House tries to makes inroads to the veterans community, The Washington Post reports today that Matt Flavin, director of the new White House Office of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, is taking the lead on the administration's outreach to the nation's roughly 23 million veterans.  Flavin, 29, previously oversaw a 450-person intelligence unit in Bosnia, deployed overseas with the Navy SEALs and served in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. "The fact that he's one of us, a combat veteran himself -- he's young and from our generation -- has given us a real advantage," said IAVA Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff, a former Army platoon leader in Iraq.  "He was in the military a short time ago, so we don't have to explain to him what traumatic brain injury is."  Click here to learn more about Flavin and his work steering the Office of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy.

4)  VA Releases Findings of PTSD Study on Minnesota Guard Members

VA researchers presented the results of a new study Wednesday by PTSD experts at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, reporting that 16 percent of Minnesota Guard members had "probable PTSD" when they returned from Iraq. The study — based on surveys of 522 Guard members — also found characteristics they believe predicted which returnees were most at risk.  A high rate of returnees with PTSD symptoms reported exposure to combat. According to researchers, Guard members were more likely to suffer PTSD if they felt a lack of that support back home and if they had neurotic personalities and negative outlooks before deployment. The study also found a modest correlation with gender. While 14 percent of surveyed men had probable PTSD, the rate jumped to 22 percent for women. VA researchers presented the results at a military research conference in Kansas City, Mo.

AFGHANISTAN

The U.N. reported Wednesday that Afghanistan’s opium production fell 10 percent last year and prices are at their lowest in a decade, meaning “the bottom is starting to fall out” of the world’s largest opium market.  A key finding of the 2009 Afghan Opium Survey indicates that cultivation in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold where U.S. and British troops have launched major operations this summer, dropped by about a third from 2007 to 2008. Helmand produces almost 70 percent of Afghanistan’s opium.  “At a time of pessimism about the situation in Afghanistan, these results are a welcome piece of good news and demonstrate that progress is possible,” Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N.’s office on drugs and crime, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, State Department officials said Wednesday they are investigating allegations of mismanagement and misbehavior by employees of military contractor ArmorGroup North America, which provides security at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The investigation could lead to the government’s terminating ArmorGroup’s $189 million contract there.

IRAQ

On Wednesday, after a short trial, a court sentenced four Iraqis - some of them former bodyguards for Iraq Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi- to hang for robbing $4.3 million from the Zuwiya branch of the Rafidain bank in Baghdad in late July.

In a controversial move, the State Department has extended a contract in Iraq with Xe Services, a subsidiary of the company formerly known as Blackwater, even though the business has been denied an Iraqi government license to operate in the country.  The contract for aviation services was to expire Thursday, at which time the company was to be replaced by DynCorp International.  However, State Department officials said DynCorp was not ready to take over the work, which involves ferrying diplomats and other American officials around Iraq, mostly by helicopter. 

MILITARY AFFAIRS

A 23-year-old Iraq veteran engaged police in a nearly four-hour standoff outside the Municipal Court in Vicksburg, Mississippi yesterday after being sentenced to counseling on a domestic violence charge.  The standoff ended peacefully when hostage negotiators with the Jackson Police Department convinced Torrance Burnett of Vicksburg to lower his weapon after threatening suicide.  Local police said Burnett was admitted to the local VA hospital in Jackson and is facing a third domestic violence charge against his girlfriend.  During the stand-off, Burnett – who reportedly left Iraq in May- expressed frustration with the war and watching his fellow soldiers get injured.

The Army News Service reported yesterday that for the past year almost 7,000 sensors mounted on troops' helmets in Iraq and Afghanistan have been collecting data on blast trauma from improvised explosive devices.  The small, lightweight sensors collected data from March 2008 to March 2009, recording concussive forces, to include helmet acceleration and blast pressure.  According to officials, the information stored in the sensors was downloaded onto a computer during monthly collection cycles or when a Soldier was involved in an incident or attack event, and has the potential to save troops from battlefield head injuries by improving prevention and mitigation strategies.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Congress is in recess until September 8^th.

IAVA IN THE NEWS

Outlet: Christian Science Monitor

Title: 'Surge home' overwhelms Veterans Affairs clinics

Date: Thursday, September 3rd

Representative: Patrick Campbell, IAVA Member Vet Rey Leal Jr.

Outlet: Washington Post

Title: The Voice of a New Generation of Veterans

Date: Thursday, September 3rd

Representative: Paul Rieckhoff

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles. These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.

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