Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 6.20.11
Posted by Isabel Black on June 20

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) Veteran trapped, like many, in disability paperwork backlog

The Department of Veterans Affairs slashed Joel Klobnak’s disability pay two years ago over what he says was a misunderstanding.  The former Marine is trying to support a family of four on $1,557 a month while he waits to hear whether the government will reinstate full disability pay for his gruesome injury and the mental anguish that accompanied it.  His appeal is trapped in a paperwork backlog that is delaying payments to injured veterans across the country.

2) Debate swirls around research showing lung problems for returned troops

An emerging body of research indicates that a significant number of American service members are reporting respiratory problems like coughing, wheezing or chest pains that started during deployment and continued after they returned home.  In 2009, a major survey of military personnel, the Millennium Cohort Study, found that 14 percent of troops who had deployed reported new breathing problems, compared with 10 percent among those who had not deployed.  Though the percentage seems small, when extrapolated for the two million troops who have deployed since 2001, the survey suggests that at least 80,000 additional service members had developed post-deployment breathing problems.

3) Looking back, Gates says he’s grown wary of ‘wars of choice’

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, as he prepared to depart the government for the second time, said in an interview that the human costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had made him far more wary about unleashing the might of the American armed forces.  Other looming challenges, he said, are how to manage the National Guard and Reserve forces during wartime, properly carry out policies that end the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, and expand efforts to halt sexual assaults in the armed forces.

AFGHANISTAN

• As the Obama administration nears a crucial decision on how rapidly to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan, high-ranking officials say that al-Qaeda’s original network in the region has been crippled, providing a rationale for an accelerated reduction of troops.

• President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said publicly for the first time on Saturday that the United States and the NATO-led coalition have been actively negotiating with the Taliban, an assertion he made in a speech that he also used to fire a broadside against his coalition allies.

IRAQ

• A sixth Fort Riley soldier has died as a result of a June 6 incident in Iraq, making it the single deadliest attack on a unit from the post since the war started more than eight years ago.

• In a two-story warehouse on the grounds of an old Iraqi ammunition storage site stood a confidence-builder for the beleaguered Iraqi army: an M198 howitzer cannon.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• Parris Island, the South Carolina military installation that has trained thousands of young Marines, has its first female commander.

• The Corp’s Infantry Immersion Trainer, a three dimensional simulator that mimics the sights, sounds and smells of modern combat, could become a mandatory stop for more Marines as part of the commandant’s push to make his troops more resilient to stress.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• An overwhelming number of voters believe the United States is involved in too many foreign conflicts and should pull back its troops, according to a new poll conducted for The Hill.

• House appropriators have proposed slapping new restrictions on the aid that Washington will send to Pakistan next year amid a chill in relations following the killing of Osama bin Laden.

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.