Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 5.21.10
Posted by Blake Henderson on May 21 2010

MUST READS   1) Nine ways to improve the Post-9/11 GI Bill   IAVA Legislative Associates Tim Embree and Tom Tarantino spoke to Army Times today about the ways in which the new GI Bill can be strengthened and improved by the VA and Congress. Click here to read IAVA's recommendations.   2) New TBI, mental health center to open in June   The National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a new 72,000-square-foot center for treatment of service members and veterans diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and psychological health conditions will open June 24th at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.    3) Intel director Dennis Blair steps down   National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, a retired admiral, is resigning after a tumultous 16-month tenure marked by intelligence failures and spy agency turf wars.   AFGHANISTAN

• A spokesman for the Maldives government says representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban met Thursday and would meet again over the weekend.  However, a spokesman for Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said that the government had not sent any representatives.
• Recent Taliban attacks in and around Afghanistan's capital Kabul demonstrate the power of the insurgency to strike directly at foreign forces.
• Officials spotted the wreckage of a commercial airliner that disappeared earlier this week.  They found the plane broken into four pieces strewn across a steep mountainside - with no survivors.

IRAQ

• President Obama has nominated Lt. Gen Lloyd J. Austin III to become the top American commander in Iraq. Pending Senate confirmation, he would be promoted to four-star general and replace Gen. Ray Odierno.
• Iraq's leading politicians gathered for lunch on the bank of the Tigris. It was an effort to foster reconciliation after the country's intensely disputed election.
• Throughout the violence of the last seven years, she chose to stay in her homeland, but as a postelection political deadlock threatens to pull Iraq back into violence and uncertainty, Ibtisam Hamoody has had it. Soon, the former engineer and women's rights activist plans to take her savings, her family heirlooms and the youngest of her three daughters and settle in Jordan or Syria.
• An injured Iraq vet finds success as CEO of a multi-million dollar construction and design firm.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• Pentagon officials studying ways to permit gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military are in a quandary: They want to gather the unique insights and attitudes of homosexuals in uniform, but to identify and interview gay troops would, under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy, mean that disciplinary action would have to be brought against them.
• Citing the importance to have weapons that blend into their surroundings, the Army released instructions on how troops can apply spray paint to their M4 or M16 rifle, without decreasing the effectiveness of either the weapon or the installed optics.
• The Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training is one of the Army's suicide mitigation strategies. Recently, 45 troops completed a two-day ASIST workshop where they learned suicide intervention and prevention skills.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• Sen. Tim Johnson (SD) called upon an appropriations subcommittee he chairs to discuss the VA's five-year plan to end homelessness among veterans.
• Senators are pushing the White House to send National Guardsmen to the U.S.-Mexico border to supplement border patrol agents. The states would like the Federal government to cover the costs.
• Secretary Eric Shinseki will deliver the commencement address at the University of Vermont, where he will also receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
• In a small change with big implications for military retirees, the House Armed Services Committee voted to pay retirees early when the first day of a month falls on a weekend.

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.