Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 5.25.10
Posted by Blake Henderson on May 25 2010

MUST READS 1) 600 museums offer free admission to military   More than 600 museums nationwide are offering free admission to military families all summer in a new partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The offer for active duty military personnel and their families runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day.   2) More troops in Afghanistan than Iraq   For the first time since 2003, U.S troops in Afghanistan outnumber troops in Iraq: 94,000 to 92,000. Troop strength in Afghanistan is expected to reach 98,000 by August, up from about 30,000 when President Obama took office.  Meanwhile, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is supposed to drop starting next month, reaching 50,000 by September.   3) U.S troops fleeing to Canada to escape service   Deportation, court martial and prison are imminent threats to about 200 U.S. troops seeking sanctuary in Canada. Despite being members of an all-voluntary military, some oppose the war in Iraq so strongly they are willing to leave their country behind - much like some Americans did to avoid Vietnam.   AFGHANISTAN

• What is being billed as the largest military offensive since the war began is striking fear in residents of Kandahar.
• Seven Afghans have been arrested in connection with a suicide bombing last week that killed six NATO soldiers, including three U.S. Army colonels.

IRAQ

• To build U.S. leaders' and the publics' awareness of the situation in Iraq, the military plans to step up efforts to influence media coverage in that country - as well as at home.
• Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently sat down with The Washington Post for an interview about the state of political affairs in his country.
• Gunmen in Baghdad have killed at least 14 people in a mass raid targeting jewelers' shops.
• The leader of the Sunni-backed coalition that won the most seats in Iraq's March election said the country's most influential Shiite cleric assured him in a meeting that no group would be excluded from the new government.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• When National Guard and Reserve members return from deployment, many find themselves dropped off in the civilian world with not much more than a pat on the back and a thank you. As the unprecedented reliance on reserve forces continues, many are betting that Vermont could become a national model for a support system.
• A team of VA researchers is using a combination of medical expertise, computer science and social research techniques to extract information from millions of files. The goal is to identify patterns in symptoms that might help physicians treat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan whose conditions are otherwise unexplainable.
• The War on Terror, and troops' ability to document most everything on video, has led it to be called "the first YouTube war."
• Satellites that provide key communications for forces fighting on the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq are processing as much as 300 percent more than they were designed to manage.
• In the military community, there's an interesting twist on the Facebook-privacy debate. The names of soldiers dying in Afghanistan are sometimes appearing on Facebook before they're officially released.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• The White House has endorsed a "don't ask, don't tell" compromise between lawmakers and the Defense Department - an agreement that may sidestep a key obstacle to repealing the military's policy banning gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces. A provision ensuring that any change would not take effect until after the Pentagon completes a study about its impact on troops is included.
• Sen. James Inhofe introduced a bill that addresses one of the issues raised after the November 2009 shooting at Fort Hood - the possibility of stricter rules about gun ownership on military bases.  The Servicemember Second Amendment Protection Act would prevent the DOD from imposing any firearm registration restrictions unless a weapon is being stored on military property.

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