Blog Post

IAVA Daily News Brief 11.21.12
Posted by Jacob Worrell on November 21 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) Turkey Day in Afghanistan

On Thursday, the 68,000 U.S. troops at more than 200 locations across Afghanistan will chow down on: About 45,000 pounds of turkey (that’s .66 pound per troop), more than 60,000 pounds of beef (.88 pound per troop), some 20,000 pounds of ham (.3 pound per troop), nearly 30,000 sweet potatoes (.4 yam per troop – hey, it’s a vegetable), and 5,800 pies (hmmm…that’s only a half-slice per soldier, assuming six slices per pie).

2) Many younger vets among the ranks of uninsured

More than quarter of all veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t have health insurance and aren’t part of the Department of Veterans Affairs health system, according to an analysis of VA data.

3) Special Report: 'The Uncounted Cost'

More than 6,000 service members have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including hundreds from Fort Drum. What's harder to see is the number of soldiers who have survived wounds that would have killed them in previous wars.

AFGHANISTAN

• Gen. John Allen has returned to Kabul to resume his duties as the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, more than a week after the Pentagon announced it was investigating potentially "inappropriate" correspondence between the four-star general and a woman linked to the David Petraeus sex scandal.
• France on Tuesday ended its combat operations in Afghanistan, pulling hundreds of troops from a base in a volatile region northeast of Kabul and fulfilling promises to end its combat role on a faster track than other NATO allies.
• A new observational documentary about Afghanistan and the “new internal democracy” building process. Filmed in Herat, Afghanistan, the film shows an unprecedented face of Afghanistan, a very different country from the stereotype created by Western media.

IRAQ

• A Kurdish commander says he has dispatched fighters to a disputed northern area as tensions mount between Iraq's central government and the self-ruled autonomous region.
• The U.S. government has filed a civil lawsuit accusing a Houston-based global construction company and its Kuwaiti subcontractor of submitting nearly $50 million in inflated claims to install live-in trailers for troops during the Iraq War.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• The Army wants “High Power Microwave (HPM) grenades” to “generate an electromagnetic pulse that could be used to defeat the electronics used to activate [homemade bombs] or that could be used to attack blasting caps.”
• The Marine Corps is forming the first squadron of pilots to fly the next-generation strike fighter jet, months after lawmakers raised concern that there was a rush to end the testing of the aircraft that has had technical problems.

THE NEW GREATEST GENERATION

• A local peer support program for veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder is weeks away from starting, as Jefferson County, NY officials arrange the details for its launch.
• Many records, especially from the Gulf War, were lost, leaving veterans unable to produce documentation the VA needed for such basic benefits as disability. But a recent report also found that the military has also lost records from the current war in Afghanistan.
• On Tuesday night Bryan Adams, 29, spoke at Voice for Veterans hosted by Delaware by Active Minds, a national student-organization dedicated to removing the stigmas associated with mental illnesses.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• Senior officers at the Pentagon are being advised on countering Taliban propaganda by a marketing expert whose company once weeded out reporters who wrote negative stories in Afghanistan and helped the military deceive the enemy in Iraq.
• Sen. Warren Rudman, a Korean War veteran and former amateur boxer, prided himself on his blunt-speaking adherence to centrist principles and his belief in bipartisan compromise as the underpinning of good government. He died Monday at 82.

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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