Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 5.26.10
Posted by Blake Henderson on May 26 2010

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) White House can be a tough fit for ex-military members   President Obama's firing of retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair as director of national intelligence highlights a pattern of problems involving senior officials in Obama's administration who once served in the upper ranks of the military.   2) Obama to send 1200 Guardsmen to border   President Obama will send 1,200 National Guard troops to boost security along the U.S.-Mexico border.  The Guardsmen will provide intelligence, surveillance and counternarcotics support until Customs and Border Protection can recruit and train more officers to serve on the border. They will not act in a law enforcement capacity.   3) U.S. expanding secret actions in Mideast   The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region.   AFGHANISTAN

• In this critical phase of the Afghanistan war, Gen. Stanley McCrystal says NATO and Afghan efforts to secure Marjah are moving too slowly. "By day there is government. By night it's the Taliban,' one Afghan tribal leader said.
• Opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah says that the NATO strategy to secure Kandahar is heavily reliant upon a solid Afghan government that can take over when the Taliban leave. He believes that can happen - but that it depends on the political will of President Hamid Karzai.
• Before becoming America's best hope for reforming Kandahar's cutthroat political system, provincial governor Tooryalai Wesa was fired from his job with a U.S.-government contractor over mismanagement and allegations of corruption.  Now Wesa stands at the center of U.S. efforts to build a credible government in Kandahar as 10,000 new American troops arrive to bolster his administration.

IRAQ

• A statue memorializing a Tennessee soldier has fallen victim to vandals for the second time in two years.  The statue was erected in honor of Dustin Laird, who was killed in 2005 in Iraq.
• The Iraqi government has dissolved state-owned Iraqi Airways over a financial dispute dating back to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.  Kuwait has long demanded $1.2 billion in reparations from the airliner for alleged theft of 10 airplanes and millions of dollars worth of spare parts during the 1990 invasion. It had sought to freeze the company's assets worldwide.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• Hundreds of veterans from around the nation are making their way to Des Moines, Iowa, to compete in the 24th National Veterans Golden Age Games.  Events at the competition are open to all U.S. military veterans age 55 or older who receive care at a VA medical facility.
• The VA has prohibited VA physicians from recommending medical marijuana to their patients, even if it is the safest and most effective medicine to treat PTSD and other service-related conditions. The ban means that veterans who reside in the 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana are denied the same rights as every other resident of these states.
• Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the present commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, has been nominated to head U.S. Joint Forces Command. Odierno, a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy is one of the few Army generals ever to command a division, corps and an entire theater-of-operations in the same conflict.
• Two charities criticized by Congress for letting down the veterans they ostensibly serve are themselves receiving help from what might be considered an unlikely source - the federal government.  Highlighting a systematic disconnect, these charities are benefiting from the generosity of federal employees through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• Bipartisan legislation to award businesses for hiring veterans was unveiled this week.  The Veterans Employment Transition Act would give a $6,000 tax credit for employers who hire any qualified and recently discharged veteran, and eliminate administrative burdens that make it difficult for small businesses to use this type of tax credit. A similar benefit already is available, but with administrative hurdles attached that make it difficult to use.
• The House has approved the expansion of chiropractic care at veterans medical centers, following the lead of the Senate earlier this year. Rep. Bob Filner, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman and chief sponsor of the House bill, said musculoskeletal disorders "are the single most common ailment facing returning veterans."

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