Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 8.18.10
Posted by Blake Henderson on August 18 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) Back home, but still fighting

As more and more soldiers return from war, they are finding their fight for survival at home to be more difficult than it was while deployed.  Sgt. Lisek was blown up by an IED, lost a leg and has been diagnosed with PTSD and TBI and is attempting to live a normal life  with his wife and children.
 
2) Military: Marine suicide pace picks up in July
 
The US Marine Corps reported six suspected suicides in July, returning to a near-record pace of self-inflicted deaths.  So far this year, 28 Marines have killed themselves. The Marine Corps' suicide rate of 24 per 100,000 is the highest among all branches of the military and higher than the civilian rate of 20 per 100,000.
 
3) Study Says Brain Trauma Can Mimic ALS

A peer-reviewed paper published in a leading journal of neuropathology suggests that the demise of soldiers and athletes given a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, might have been catalyzed by injuries only now becoming understood: concussions and other brain trauma.    Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., and the Boston University School of Medicine, said that the markings in the spinal cords of patients diagnosed with ALS were not consistent with actual ALS patients, instead they had a different disease, caused by concussion-like trauma.
 
AFGHANISTAN

• The Obama administration delivered what might be its toughest warning yet to President Hamid Karzai over corruption in his government.
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's help for his nation, two decades after Moscow ended a disastrous conflict that cost the lives of about 15,000 Soviet troops.

IRAQ

• A cemetery in Iraq is being reserved for the bodies of a militant Shiite group who have vowed to rise up and fight if the United States forces stay in the country beyond the December 31, 2011 deadline.
• Iraq's political elite, empowered by the American invasion and entrusted with the country's future, has begun to deliver a damning critique of itself, a grim harbinger for a country rife with fears of more crises, conflicts and even coups as the American military withdraws.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• The Army this month began issuing new uniforms printed with a camouflage pattern called MultiCam, which is designed to blend better with the varied landscapes of Afghanistan's mountainous terrain.
• Rapidly rising pay and benefits in the armed forces have lifted many military towns into the ranks of the nation's most affluent communities.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• Lawmakers are not satisfied with Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki's explanation of how $6.3 million committed to researching the traumatic brain injuries suffered by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan was spent.

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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