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IAVA Daily Brief 09.28.09
Posted by Terrell Frazier on September 28

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?  Sign-up to receive the IAVA Daily News Brief in your inbox each morning or follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom.

MUST READS

1) $3,000 Advances to Bridge GI Bill Backlog

In response to widespread concern over the mounting backlog of Post 9/11 GI Bill claims, the Department of Veteran Affairs has taken action to help veterans who are struggling to make ends meet while they are waiting for their GI Bill checks to arrive. Now, starting Oct. 2, veterans can request a $3,000 advance on their housing and book allowances by bringing a photo ID, course schedule and eligibility certificate to one of the agency's 57 regional offices, including in the District and Baltimore. The agency said it would also send officials to some college campuses and help coordinate transportation to regional offices. "Students should be focusing on their studies, not worrying about financial difficulties," Secretary of Veterans AffairsEric K. Shinseki said in a statement. The agency has been overwhelmed by a flood of applications. Of the 251,000 students who have submitted claims this year, 24,186 -- less than 10 percent -- have received checks, according to Veterans Affairs officials.

2) 60 Minutes: McChrystal’s Frank Talk on Afghanistan

General Stanley McChrystal, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday that the U.S. needs to "deprogram" bad habits and change how the war is being fought.  "We could do good things in Afghanistan for the next 100 years and fail. Because we're doing a lot of good things and it just doesn't add up to success," McChrystal said.  "The secretary talks in terms of 12 to 18 months to show a significant change and then we eat up two or three months just on sort of getting the tools out of the tool box. That really hurts."  Asked how often he talks to President Obama about the situation, McChrystal said he has talked to him only once in 70 days since taking over from his predecessor this past spring.  Click here to watch McChrystal take 60 Minutes behind the scenes of central command in Afghanistan.

3) Wartime Soldier, Conflicted Mom

A range of challenges face mothers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 100,000 female soldiers who have served in the wars are mothers, nearly half the number of women who have been deployed. While the military has adapted to women living, serving and fighting alongside men, helping mothers poses a different set of challenges. Two of the biggest issues that confront married and single enlisted mothers are long periods of time away and the transition back to domestic life. Last year the army extended the time that a new mother can defer deployment from four to six months. According to the article, some solutions to further assist enlisted mothers is for the military to provide around-the-clock child care and to start offering assurances that couples will not be deployed simultaneously.

AFGHANISTAN

The Obama administration has told the government of Hamid Karzai that it believes he will be re-elected as president of Afghanistan for another five-year term, two administration officials said on Sunday, even though the results from the disputed Aug. 20 vote are still under review because of evidence of widespread fraud.

The Defense Department says five U.S. troops were killed in three separate attacks in southern Afghanistan Friday. Three troops died in a roadside bombing, one was shot by insurgents and another died in an attack while on patrol. Roadside bombs now account for most US and NATO casualties in what has been the deadliest year for international forces since the 2003 US-led invasion. According to the independent icasualties website, which keeps a tally of military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, 371 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year, compared to 294 for all of 2008.

About 1,500 civilians died in Afghanistan from the beginning of the year to August, according to the U.N. report released this week. "August (was) the deadliest month since the beginning of 2009," the report said. "These figures reflect an increasing trend in insecurity over recent months and in election-related violence." The report also warned that violence could rise again when the final election results are released.

Growing Taliban influence in northern Afghanistan is threatening a new military supply line painstakingly negotiated by the U.S., as rising violence takes hold on the one-time Silk Road route. Local officials say the Taliban is establishing a shadow government along the dilapidated road that ultimately could prevent vital supplies carried in hundreds of trucks every week from reaching the military. It also raises the danger that the supplies could end up in militant hands as fodder for suicide attacks.

IRAQ

Fifteen Iraqi soldiers were killed accidentally during what were meant to be controlled explosions in a town outside the northern city of Mosul on Friday, a defense ministry official said. A military source told AFP the soldiers were carrying out routine controlled explosions of roadside bombs, which had been collected in the area over the previous week. Iraq took over responsibility for security in its towns and cities on July 1, with US combat troops scheduled to leave the country by August 2010, and all American forces required to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

A U.S. military drone crashed Saturday in northern Iraq, hitting a regional office of Iraq’s largest Sunni political party in an area that remains an insurgent stronghold, an American military official said. There was no immediate indication the drone was shot down and the cause of the crash was under investigation, said Maj. Derrick Cheng, a U.S. military spokesman. There were no reports of injuries. Drones have been a mainstay of the U.S. war effort, offering around-the-clock airborne “eyes” watching over road convoys and tracking insurgent movements, and occasionally unleashing missiles on a target.

Eight of the 16 members of al Qaeda in Iraq who escaped Wednesday night from a Tikrit prison north of Baghdad have been recaptured, security officials in Samarra said Saturday. Three of the eight recaptured prisoners had previously been sentenced to death for crimes that include killing and kidnapping, officials said. The Iraqi Interior Ministry has taken charge of the investigation and all prison guards at Tikrit are being investigated, police said. The prison holds more than 400 inmates.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

The Army is allowing the resignation of the first commissioned officer to be court-martialed for refusing to go to Iraq, his lawyer said late Friday.  The officer, First Lt. Ehren Watada, will be granted a discharge on Oct. 2, “under other-than-honorable conditions,” said the lawyer, Kenneth Kagan. Lieutenant Watada, 31, refused to deploy to Iraq with his unit, based in Fort Lewis, Wash., in 2006, arguing that the war was illegal and that he would be a party to war crimes. Lieutenant Watada, who was born in Honolulu, was charged with missing his unit’s deployment and with conduct unbecoming an officer for denouncing President George W. Bush and the war — statements he made while explaining his actions. His court-martial ended in a mistrial in February 2007.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

A House subcommittee is considering legislation that would further expand financial and legal protections for deployed service members who are going to college or have cell phone contracts or property leases. The Helping Active Duty Deployed Act, HR 2874, is one of several veterans bills pending before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee that could become part of an omnibus bill. At a Sept. 24 hearing of the committee’s economic opportunity panel, HR 2874 was described as an expansion of protections in the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act and other federal laws.

U.S. servicemembers who suffer up to three mild traumatic brain injuries or concussions during a deployment — typically from roadside bombs — could be pulled out of combat for the duration of their tour, according to a policy being pushed by Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The military estimates the cost of Mullen's initiative — in troops removed from combat — may be minimal, with only about 1% to 2% of the 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan routinely exposed to roadside bombs sidelined during a period of several months, or about 150 to 400 people, says Army Col. Chris Macedonia, Mullen's medical science adviser.

President Barack Obama said Friday that he understands that Americans are tiring of the war in Afghanistan, and that he is examining whether the U.S. is pursuing the right strategy there. Obama gave no hints about whether he plans to add more troops, as his commanding general in Afghanistan wants him to do. He said he has to make sure the core goal of defeating al-Qaida is served by any move he makes.

As President Obama weighs sending more troops to Afghanistan, one of the most consequential decisions of his presidency, he has discovered that the military is not monolithic in support of the plan and that some of the civilian advisers he respects most have deep reservations. Among the most important outside voices has been that of former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, a retired four-star Army general, who visited Obama in the Oval Office this month and expressed skepticism that more troops would guarantee success. Mr. Powell is one of the three people outside the administration, along with Senator John Kerry and Senator Jack Reed considered by White House aides to be most influential in this current debate. All have expressed varying degrees of doubt about the wisdom of sending more forces to Afghanistan.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The Senate and the House are not in session in observance of Yom Kippur. 

FUTURE  HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST



• September 30, 2009  Full Veterans’ Affairs Committee Hearing:  Energy Efficiency at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon
• October 8, 2009  Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Markup of Pending Legislation   1:00 p.m.; 334 Cannon
• October 14, 2009  Full Veterans’ Affairs Committee Hearing:  Update on the State of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon HOB 

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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