Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 8.11.10
Posted by Blake Henderson on August 11 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 or subscribe at www.IAVA.org/DailyNewsBrief.

MUST READS

1) The new lost generation
 
The cost that can be tallied of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is more than $1 trillion dollars and at least 5,600 dead and 43,000 wounded.  Less visible , but no less important, is the cost and effect that the wars will have on the soldiers returning home, a burden that the nation and the Pentagon will have to bear.

2) In mission with Afghan police, issues of trust
 
In the second in a series of articles chronicling the yearlong deployment to Afghanistan of the First Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, soldiers of the I-87 begin to train, and more importantly to trust, the Afghan police in their region.  Long considered the weakest rung of the Afghan security forces, Americans also worry that police conspire with insurgents.
 
3) Amputee veterans stand up to Mout Kilimanjaro and achieve peak condition

Three soldiers who lost legs in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam, participated in the Warfighter Sports Challenge and summited Mount Kilimanjaro.  Though their prosthetics suffered from the climb and the altitude, all three made it to the top of the 20,000 foot mountain, and safely back down.
 
AFGHANISTAN

• NATO has reached its goal of expanding the size of Afghanistan's army and police to 240,000 three months ahead of schedule, achieving a key measurement that will be used to gauge progress in the war.
• Several human rights groups have asked WikiLeaks to censor secret files on the Afghanistan war to protect civilians who have worked alongside the United States and other foreign forces from reprisals.

IRAQ

• The outgoing commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Tuesday that Iraqi security forces will continue to rely heavily on American funding as the U.S. troop drawdown accelerates, forces them to take on more responsibility.
• As the last US combat troops prepare to leave Iraq this month, the State Department is struggling to implement an expanded mission that it has belatedly realized it might not be able to afford.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• After nine years of constant combat, the U.S. military is shifting focus from executing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to helping the troops who've fought them adjust to life outside the war zone, the nation's top office said Monday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
• A former Navy secretary, Sean O'Keefe, survived the crash of a private plane Monday night near a fishing village in Alaska that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens and four others.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• President Obama commended Secretary Gates for his 'responsible and accountable' cutbacks to the Pentagon's budget.

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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