Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 08.14.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy on August 14

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.

MUST READS

1) Obama: Fixing VA could take years 

In an interview, President Barack Obama recently conceded to the the Military Times that it could take years to address problems with the VA system.  During a select roundtable with military reporters at the White House on August 4th, the President said: “It’s fair to say that this is a multiyear project.  We are going to be working vigilantly. We’re going to keep on pushing. We’re going to keep on prodding to make sure that both VA and DoD understand these very human issues are dealt with in the most thoughtful and effective way as possible.”  President Obama emphasized he not only wants to improve the treatment of America’s veterans, but also to reach out to homeless veterans, as well as those who have turned their backs on — or are unaware of — the benefits they are entitled to.  By his assessment, the VA needs to change how it views its mission.  “I think a lot of the reason people fall through the cracks is historically sometimes VA has sat back and waited for people to come to them,” Obama said. “And part of what [Shinseki] has been doing is to make sure that VA is reaching out to them.”  Additionally, in one of his first statements regarding the issue of burnpit exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama said he wants an objective assessment of the problem — the “best science possible.”  “I don’t want us hiding the ball if there’s a real problem there,” Obama said. “I am absolutely convinced that our commanders in theater are doing everything they can to protect their men and women. The key is to understand that our scientific knowledge and our medical knowledge may evolve. And if we find out that something’s wrong, even … it might not have been anyone’s fault … nobody is served by denial or sweeping things under the rug.”  Click here to read more of the interview with Military Times.

2) VA likely to miss deadline to process education benefits claims

Next.Gov reported Thursday that the Veterans Affairs Department has a backlog of nearly 200,000 GI Bill education benefits claims from veterans just three weeks before universities and colleges start classes for the fall, As a result, it is unlikely the VA can process the applications in time, according to knowledgeable congressional source.  The VA has been overwhelmed with claims and the backlog means "schools are going to get paid late," said the source who declined to be identified. Colleges and universities basically have two choices: decline to enroll veterans for the fall semester, which would cause bad publicity, or carry the veterans until VA payments arrive. The situation is "not pretty, and it's going to get uglier," the source said.  At a June hearing, top Veterans Affairs officials told the House Veterans Affairs Committee that the department was on schedule to process the claims by the start of classes in the fall and VA was processing claims faster than it received them.  But, a report from the Veterans Benefits Administration released on Monday showed a backlog of 191,388 education benefit claims as of Aug. 10, an increase of 16,411, or 9.4 percent, from the previous week.  The backlog has increased every week since May, when recent veterans were able to apply for the rich package of benefits available under the law.

3) Army on track to surpass 2008 suicide numbers 

U.S. Army officials reported Thursday that as many as 12 soldiers killed themselves in July, putting the service on course to setting a record for suicides in a single year.  Of the 12 deaths, eight were active-duty soldiers and four were National Guard or Army Reserve soldiers who were not on active duty at the time of their deaths.  All 12 deaths are possible suicides and remain under investigation.  Since January, there have been 96 reported active-duty suicides in the U.S. Army. Of those, 62 have been confirmed as suicides and 34 are still under investigation.  By contrast, here were 79 suicides among active-duty soldiers for the same period in 2008.  The Army reported 140 suicides in 2008 and is on track to surpass that number this year.

4) Gates: Duration of OEF a ‘mystery’  

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in a Pentagon briefing Thursday that the duration of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan remains a mystery.  Gates, a former Director of Central Intelligence, said he didn’t mean to sound flip, but “in the intelligence business, we always used to categorize information ... in two ways: secrets and mysteries.  The secrets were things that were ultimately knowable; mysteries were those where there were too many variables to predict.  And I think that how long U.S. forces will be in Afghanistan ... is in that area.” Reiterating that the U.S. has to show progress within a year's timeframe, Gates said there are four variables that will impact U.S. and NATO troops ability to tamp down violence:  First, foreign service officers’ ability to help build strong governmental structure and reduce corruption at all levels of the Afghan government.  Second, building an economy and creating jobs that are viable alternatives to the illicit poppy trade and fighting for the Taliban.  Third, the outcome of the Aug. 20 presidential election. And, fourth, “the enemy has a vote."  But with 62,000 U.S. troops already in the country, and an additional 6,000 headed there by the end of the year, Gates implied that there is little appetite in Washington to add many more.

AFGHANISTAN

The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that an American service member was killed in Afghanistan’s Taliban-heavy south.  According to officials, the death occurred as the result of “a direct fire attack.”  No further details were provided.

A week ahead of Afghanistan's second presidential election, the International Republican Institute reported Thursday that while current Afghan President Hamid Karzai is leading in the presidential race, his opponents are closing the gap and he still falls short of the 50 percent support needed to avoid a runoff.  Per the Institute, polls show Karzai with 44 percent, up from 31 percent in May.  However, his closest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, the candidate for the largest opposition bloc, the National Front, showed the biggest surge, polling 26 percent, nearly four times his support in May.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports today that Ashraf Ghani, the most educated and Westernized of Afghanistan’s presidential candidates, is shaking up the campaign before Thursday’s election in unusual ways.  Ghani, 60, a former finance minister with a background in American academia and at the World Bank, told the Times he is trying to change politics in Afghanistan by using television and radio, Internet donations and student volunteers, as well as traditional networks like religious councils.  A week ahead of the election, Ghani still significantly trails behind Karzai and Abdullah.  By recent estimates, his political support registers at just 4 percent nationwide.  Stealing a page from American politics, he recently hired U.S. political consultant James Carville, the architect of President Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential victory.

In an effort to better protect Afghan civilians, Air Force Lt. Gen. Gilmary Hostage said Thursday that the U.S. Air Force is considering a new military approach: buzzing rather than bombing the enemy.  "The first thing we do is fly over head, and the bad guys know airpower is in place and oftentimes that's enough. That ends the fight, they vamoose," said Hostage, who will direct the air battle over Iraq and Afghanistan. "The A-10 has a very distinct sound. The cannon on an A-10 is horrifically capable and our adversaries know it. When they hear the sound of an A-10, they scatter."  Per Hostage, the strategy known as irregular warfare, is designed to protect local people and then enlist their help defeating Taliban insurgents. She said said the irregular warfare philosophy may sound strange to some, but it will give military commanders more flexibility in fighting a war.

IRAQ

Two suicide bombers wearing suicide vests blew themselves up Thursday evening in a popular cafe crowded with young people in the northwestern city of Sinjar, which is populated primarily by Yazidis, Kurdish-speaking followers of a pre-Islamic faith. According to local hospital issues, the blasts killed 21 and wounded 30 others.

The Washington Post has a feature today on Brig. Gen. Heidi Brown, who made history during the 2003 invasion of Iraq as the first female commander to head an American combat brigade in wartime.  Currently, Brown is commander in charge of the responsible withdrawal from Iraq, overseeing the retrenchment of the United States' vast military enterprise in Iraq."So that was then, fighting our way up the desert, all the way up to Baghdad," she said in a recent interview, sitting in an office inside a palace built for Saddam Hussein. Now, "I work in the palace. It's just very different. Here I am, planning the responsible withdrawal and moving all this stuff out of theater.”  In an interview, Brown said her first task is to determine how much gear -- including thousands of vehicles, weapons and housing units -- need to be shipped out and to understand how the Iraqi security forces could help with the move. Click here to read the interview.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

The Spokesman-Review reported Thursday that a revolt is underway by staff psychiatrists at the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center.  In a July 24 e-mail, all four of the department’s psychiatrists and one psychiatric nurse practitioner said they would refuse to accept new patients arguing that their caseloads in some cases are more than 70 percent above the VA standard.  “We have an ethical obligation to be available to our patients for timely appointments and communications,” the e-mail said. “We are no longer able to fulfill these obligations to our huge caseloads, let alone offer this to the dozen new patients coming into the clinic each week.”  According to the psychiatrists, they are taking a stand amid growing concern across the nation about the mental health of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  Recentlly, an investigation by the VA’s office of Medical Inspector found that from July 2007 through July 7, 2008, at least 22 Spokane-area veterans killed themselves, including 15 who had had contact with the Spokane VA Medical Center.

On the health front, Military.com reports today that having appropriated $5 million in 2008 the Pentagon and VA have yet to establish a fully functioning Military Eye Trauma Vision Center of Excellence.  Instead, some 19 months after funding was committed, the VCE has set up a temporary shop in the Falls Church, Va., offices of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health, where it's overseen by an Army colonel with no computers and a staff of two on loan from the VA.  Some 13 percent of troops wounded and requiring medical attention early in Operation Iraqi Freedom have sustained penetrating eye trauma.

The Marine Corps’ only East Coast wounded warrior battalion is getting a new commander.  On Friday, officials reported that Lt. Col. George S. Benson will take command of Wounded Warrior Battalion-East from Lt. Col. Thomas C. Siebenthal effective Friday. The ceremony takes place at Marston Pavilion at Camp Lejeune.  Benson recently returned from a 15-month deployment to Iraq.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Princeton University will host a training program for veterans thinking about running for political office in September.  The nonpartisan, nonideological training program, called the Veterans Campaign, is designed solely to get more former military people — especially younger veterans — interested in serving in state and federal office, according to Seth Lynn, executive director of the nonprofit education program and a former Marine Corps officer.  The two-day course, which starts on Sept. 12, is free, but those attending will have to cover their own transportation, food and lodging costs.  Currently, only 26 of 100 senators — down from 54 in 1994 — and 101 members of the 435-member House of Representatives served in the military. In the years after World War II, more than half of lawmakers were veterans.

Separately, a dispute is heating up between the Pentagon and some of the nation's top Governors over authority to call up military reservists for natural disasters — and to control how the troops would be used in any state.  In a brief circulated on Capitol Hill, the Pentagon argues that a change in law is needed so the president, through his defense chief, would gain the ability to mobilize reservists when a state seeks aid in a catastrophic natural disaster such as a hurricane.  "The key here is that right now, we lack the authority to bring to bear the hundreds of thousands of trained reserve forces that in extreme circumstances might help governors deal with the disasters in their states,"  Paul Stockton, the assistant secretary for homeland defense, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "This provision would in no way impede or undermine or inadvertently reduce the authority that governors exercise under the United States Constitution."  The National Governors Association opposes the plan, saying it would confuse chain of command and hinder state officials' ability to provide a coordinated emergency response. Unlike the National Guard, which is based in each state and commanded by the governors through the states' adjutant generals, the nation's 380,000 reservists currently come under the control of the federal government.  Guard members can be activated for federal duty, as many have for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But most often — including in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina — they operate under the control of their home-state governors.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

The Senate is on recess until September 8^th.

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

August 28, 2009 - SVAC will conduct a field hearing on the state of VA’s services on Maui, to include an OIG report of the same.  10:00 a.m.; Maui Cultural Center (Vasquez)

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The House is on recess until September 8^th.

IAVA IN THE NEWS

Outlet: Examiner.com

Title: White House “Reality Check” website fails to back up claim regarding health care for Veterans

Date:  Friday, August 14th

Representative: IAVA, Paul Rieckhoff

WHAT THE BLOGS ARE SAYING

Blog: Who Gives a Sh&%, It's Gone

Title: Operation Iraqi Baseball

Date: Thursday, August 13^th

Representative: IAVA

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.