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IAVA Daily Brief 11.10.09
Posted by Terrell Frazier on November 10

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) Obama to meet mourning families in Ft. Hood

President Obama will meet privately with relatives of those killed and injured during Thursday's attack at Fort Hood when he visits the Army base Tuesday for a memorial service. The president also speaks at the service, to "address a community obviously saddened and stricken by the events of last week," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. Investigative officials say the Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood massacre will be charged by the U.S. military rather than in a civilian court. Military experts say Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is almost certain to face capital charges before an Army court-martial. But they warn that death penalty cases are so rare in the military, and so prone to mistakes, that death sentences rarely stick.

2) Sources: Obama Near Decision on Afghanistan Troops

President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to add tens of thousands more forces to Afghanistan, though probably not quite the 40,000 sought by his top general there. The White House emphasized that the president hasn't made a decision yet about troop levels or other aspects of the revised U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Administration officials told The Associated Press on Monday the deployment would most probably begin in January with a mission to stiffen the defense of 10 key cities and towns. An Army brigade that had been training for deployment to Iraq that month may be the vanguard. The brigade, based at Fort Drum in upstate New York, has been told it will not go to Iraq as planned but has been given no new mission yet.

3) Obama to Encourage Federal Hiring of Veterans

The White House is launching a program it says will turn the government into the model employer of military veterans. President Barack Obama was to sign an executive order Monday creating the Veterans Employment Initiative. The program will underscore for federal agencies the importance of recruiting and training military veterans. It also will be charged with bringing more veterans into the federal work force and helping newly hired veterans adjust to working in a civilian environment. Obama says honoring the nation's pact with its veterans means doing everything possible to help them find work when they come home.

AFGHANISTAN

NATO says Afghan and international forces have killed more than 130 insurgents, including eight Taliban leaders, in an offensive in northern Kunduz province. In a statement Monday, NATO said international forces carried out the operation in Chahar Dara district last week "to stop insurgent activity and weapons trafficking."

Japan decided on Tuesday to provide up to $5 billion in new aid to Afghanistan over five years, a package Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama hopes will improve strained security ties with Washington ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit this week. Concerns are growing about friction over a planned reorganization of the U.S. military presence in Japan, the first big test of ties between Washington and a new Japanese government that wants more equal relations with its closest security ally.

IRAQ

As Iraqis who fled their homes to escape sectarian violence are returning, many face high unemployment and poor access to electricity and water, according to a new report by the International Organization of Migration, a nongovernmental group operating in more than 100 countries. In the worst cases, families return to discover that their homes are gone or have been significantly damaged. One-third of returnees interviewed by the group said they felt unsafe some of the time.

Two US army pilots have been killed in a helicopter crash in central Iraq, the US military has said. Their helicopter "experienced a hard landing" at a base in Salahuddin Province on Sunday, a statement said without giving further details.

The Iraqi parliament's approval of an election law on Sunday cleared a major potential obstacle to the U.S. military meeting its timetable for withdrawing all combat troops by September 2010. But no one in Baghdad and Washington is celebrating just yet. Their sense of relief is tempered by the knowledge that in Iraq nothing is ever as clear-cut as it seems.

The timeline for the U.S. pullout could still be affected by any delay in picking Iraq's next government following the election, scheduled to take place on January 21.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

A US Marine is being held for allegedly killing a fellow marine in Camp Lejeune, a spokesman at the Marine base in North Carolina said Monday. Private Jonathan Law, 21, "is in the custody of military authorities... for the alleged homicide of Corporal Joshua E. Hartzell, 22, early Friday morning," said base public affairs officer Captain Timothy Patrick. Law also attempted to commit suicide, and was moved to the camp jail on Monday after he was treated at a civilian hospital "for self-inflicted wounds," Patrick said in a statement.

Military personnel who are evacuated out of combat areas because of low back pain have little chance of returning to their units, researchers found. Among soldiers taken from Iraq and Afghanistan to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany with a primary diagnosis of back pain, only 13.3 percent made it back to their units, according to Steven Cohen, MD, of Johns Hopkins, who is a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. Women, officers, and those who were serving in Afghanistan had slightly better outcomes, although these groups still had low rates of return, Dr. Cohen and his colleagues reported in the Nov. 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Beginning next fall, equipment officials plan to outfit a Special Forces battalion with the service’s wearable command-and-control kit designed to help small units see through the fog of war. Equipment officials do not know yet which SF battalion will get the high-tech equipment. Land Warrior, which allows combat leaders to track the locations of their men and view maps and other tactical information through a tiny, helmet-mounted computer screen, is currently in Afghanistan with 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Credit unions and associations representing military members are urging lawmakers to oppose a provision in a broad financial services bill that they argue amounts to a tax on troops and their families. The bill, currently being marked up in the House Financial Services Committee, would impose a fee on financial institutions with more than $10 billion in assets to pay for the costs if the government is forced to take over a failing financial firm.

Congress is considering a huge expansion of Troops to Teachers: Under a pending bill, an estimated 98 percent of U.S. schools would be eligible to hire troops-turned-teachers. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said the program helps schools by providing them with more highly qualified math and science teachers while giving veterans "the opportunity to serve their country again."

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

The Senate will convene at 10:00 a.m.

SENATE FLOOR ACTIVITY of INTEREST

Moment of Silence to honor the victims of the attacks at Fort Hood, Texas

Morning Business for 1 hour. The Majority will control the first 30 minutes and the Republicans will control the next 30 minutes.

Following Morning Business, resume HR3082, Military Construction/VA Appropriations.

There will be no roll call votes during Tuesday's session.

SENATE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

No Issues today

THE HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES  

The House is not expected to be in session the week of November 9 – 13, 2009

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.