Blog Post

IAVA Daily News Brief 11.14.12
Posted by Jacob Worrell on November 14 2012

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings that IAVA is tracking. Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking? Follow us on Twitter @IAVA and click here to get the News Brief delivered to your inbox every morning.

MUST READS

1) Aaron Mankin Brings Down the House

Last night at IAVA's Sixth Annual Heroes Gala, Aaron Mankin, our special guest, and 2011 Veteran Leadership Honoree, brought the house down once again. Every time Aaron speaks, he reminds everyone in range how transformative organizations like IAVA are to the personal stories of veterans and their families from coast to coast. If you would like to help IAVA continue the fight in 2013 and beyond by donating, please click here.

2) A proactive new response to the service-member suicide crisis

Licensed psychotherapist and author Marjorie Morrison created a preventative-counseling program for drill instructors that has become a model for military mental-health therapy. She details the new, proactive approach to therapy that she’s delivering to the First Marine Regiment to combat suicide.

3) Sexual assault in the military: former marine CJ Scarlett shares her story

One in three women in the military has been sexually assaulted. This staggering statistic has drawn scrutiny to how the military addresses claims of sexual assault, while also calling to question why women in the military are so much more likely to be assaulted than civilian women. Former marine CJ Scarlett assesses that the culture of the military contributes to such a threatening environment.

AFGHANISTAN

• Afghans who have suffered at the hands of the Taliban spoke about what they believe the country's future will hold after NATO troops withdraw in 2014.
• The report, "Afghanistan in 2012: A Survey of the Afghan People," found public opinion to be the most optimistic since the annual survey began in 2004.
• Staff Sgt. Robert Bales’ courtroom hearing raised almost as many questions as it answered.

IRAQ

• Iraqi officials say separate bombings in northern Iraq have killed at least 10 people.
• Iraq’s re-emergence as an oil power is inevitably sending ripples through the industry and the surrounding region.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• Marine Gen. John Allen allegedly exchanged "flirtatious" e-mails with a woman who was supposedly being threatened by the CIA director's mistress, according to a Defense Department official.
• The Marine Corps has launched a multimedia advertising campaign aimed at encouraging more women and minorities to join as officers, and ending a decades-old stereotype that the Corps is the domain of white men.
• Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has demoted the former head of U.S. Africa Command who was accused of spending thousands of dollars on lavish travel and other unauthorized expenses.

THE NEW GREATEST GENERATION

• Photographer John Moore has spent much of the last decade covering assignments in conflict zones as well as veterans issues. This year he visited Brooke Army Medical Center and captured what the rehabilitation process is like.
• Author Lea Lane took time this Veterans Day to reflect about her experiences as a military wife during the period of the Vietnam War.
• For the past week, hundreds of military veterans from across the nation have flocked to Far Rockaway, summoned by a beacon from Team Rubicon, a nonprofit created by veterans.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• President Obama is considering asking John Kerry, to take the reins at the Pentagon as part of an extensive rearrangement of his national security team.
• The Senate passed a bill that provides 4 million veterans and survivors a 1.7 percent cost-of-living increase effective Dec. 1.

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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