Blog post

IAVA Daily News Brief 3.8.10
Posted by Michelle McCarthy on March 7 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 to the Daily News Brief at http://iava.org/dailynewsbrief.

MUST READS

1) Iraqis Defy Blasts To Cast Votes

Despite a series of explosions that tore across Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi polls opened and a steady stream of people came out to vote.  In often defiant tones, many voters expressed a sentiment familiar in recent campaigns across the world - the desire for change.

2) Veterans Put Their Own War Stories on Film

For years, many veterans have cringed at Hollywood's portrayals of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Now, five veterans have been offered a chance to make their own documentaries about the consequences of the wars for them and for those around them.

3) Letting Women Reach Women In Afghan War

Next month, 40 young female Marines will begin work as members of the first full-time "female engagement teams," four- and five-member units that will accompany men on patrols in Helmand Province.  Their mission: to try to win over the rural Afghan women who are culturally off limits to outside men.

AFGHANISTAN

• Elders in a former Taliban stronghold berated and challenged Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday, delivering a litany of complaints about government corruption and NATO's military operations in the county.
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled to Afghanistan Monday for talks with his counterpart President Hamid Karzai aimed at expanding bilateral ties.
• NATO Chief Andres Fogh Rasmussen urged Muslim countries to engage Afghanistan because they share similar cultural and religious values.

IRAQ

• U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates hailed Iraqi voter turnout and the performance of Baghdad's security forces in Sunday's elections saying, "We couldn't have written a script from the vantage point of March 2007 to be where we are today with the low level of violence and significant turnout for election."
• Female candidates were out in force over the past few weeks - shaking hands, making speeches, and handing out campaign literature in advance of Sunday's elections.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• The Army recently asked 45 of its soldiers in the highest enlisted rank to retire for substandard performance, past criminal convictions, problems with alcohol, fraternization or sexual harassment in their recent past.
• This weekend, the Department of Defense announced that the active Army, National Guard and Reserve all exceeded their recruiting goals for January.
• As Army drones reach 1 million flight hours in the two wars next month, the service envisions a future in which humans stay in the loop, said Col. Christopher B. Carlile, director of the Army UAS Center of Excellence.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• On Friday, Republican Members of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs submitted their recommendations for the Department of Veteran Affairs' 2011 budget, recommending $2.66 billion over the Administration's own budget request.
• Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that he would help the White House convince his fellow Republicans to support closing Guantanamo Bay if President Obama reverses course and sends the alleged Sept. 11th mastermind and his co-conspirators to military tribunals.
• Vice President Joe Biden traveled to the Middle East this past Sunday to try to build support for reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, despite deep skepticism on both sides.

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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