SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

News Analysis

VFA News Analysis: July 3, 2008

President Bush vows to bring more American troops to the fight in Afghanistan – but how he will, without scaling back in Iraq, where nearly one of every two troops to deploy this year will be a Guard or Reservist, is an open question. Afghanistan is the central front, despite all the attention, blood and treasure the U.S. has spent in Iraq.

As if our troops didn’t have enough to worry about while away from home and family in a combat zone half a world away — now they have to worry about contractor work so shoddy it risks electrocuting them to death. Thirteen Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq because of wiring problems.

A legal loophole may allow war profiteers ripping off the American taxpayer in Iraq and Afghanistan — and endangering American troops there — to avoid prosecution. Chalk it up to whether a war is “declared.”

Homeless veterans – a new battle for survival for those already combat-scarred abroad.

“My heart kind of dropped.” More than 113,000 of the 263,000 military members deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan are parents, according to Pentagon data — more than 16,000 are single parents. At least 155,000 children have parents deployed, or preparing to deploy, overseas.

The strains of the Iraq war are adding up too fast, too painfully, for our over-taxed troops and their families.

There’s no celebration like the homecoming for troops returning from war. Welcome home from Iraq, and Happy Fourth of July.

VFA News Analysis: July 2, 2008

Hundreds of our soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are ending up homeless. “How could this happen?”  Our troops are owed nothing less than to be made whole again — and the nation must deliver, or we risk dishonoring us all.

“We, the Army, have been rode hard and put up wet. We’re catching ourselves coming and going…In all honesty, ladies and gentlemen, I and the majority of us in uniform, and those that repeatedly support us, are tired.”

For more than five years, our efforts to destroy the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies in and around Afghanistan have been distracted by the war in Iraq — which was not in any way connected to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Now, troops and analysts are convinced the Taliban are even stronger.

Veterans Hospital in Waco gets mobile MRI unit to help research and treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Another untreated casualty of PTSD puts more lives at risk…

New Pentagon satellite system supporters say it will cost up to $4 billion to watch foreign troop movements - not including the inevitable cost overruns of major procurement projects. That’s about the same amount of money that a recent RAND study found would be required to take care of all of our troops suffering psychological injuries and traumatic brain injuries. We owe it to our military men and women, who have put everything on the line for us, to make them whole again first.

Pentagon to unveil new waiver process for recruits with past bad behavior…

The presidential race, through the armed forces’ eyes and ears…

The Iraq War is deadliest for women troops, compared with earlier wars,  with 97 dead so far. The average age of the female casualties is 27.

 

VFA News Analysis: July 1, 2008

Troops who were issued a disability rating of 20 percent or lower during their medical evaluation boards since Sept. 11, 2001 may have their cases reviewed by a new Pentagon board. The Physical Disability Board of Review was created after investigations found large discrepancies between and within the services in the amount of disability benefits awarded.

The war in Iraq continues, as do the deployments – the latest round affect some 33,000 personnel. Come back safe and sound.

A veterans official in Missouri theorizes that there are far more post-traumatic stress disorder cases than the Pentagon thinks.

To fund the war, President Bush signed a $162 billion war bill that includes a $63 billion overhaul of G.I. Bill education benefits that the president had threatened to veto.

Three contaminated military bases in the U.S.? “Imminent and substantial danger” to the public health? It looks that way, and looks like there are no immediate plans for a cleanup. More here.

RAND releases delayed history of Iraq war. The report is available here.

Democrats are winning veterans hearts and minds in Congress, after years in which the GOP enjoyed an edge among the nation’s former military personnel.

 

VFA News Analysis: June 30, 2008

The U.S. Army did not adequately prepare for post-invasion Iraq and lacked the staffing, foresight and expertise required to preserve order after the fall of Saddam Hussein, according to an Army report. So not only did American officials fail to quell nation-wide violence after Saddam, it failed to take into account the ongoing operation’s toll on our military, the ongoing stress it would wreak on our men and women in uniform and the untold psychological carnage unleashed on the full-time and reserve/guard troops.

The legacy of that poor planning continues with officials preparing to order some 30,000 troops to Iraq early next year, in a move to keep U.S. forces there at 15 combat brigades through 2009.

Iraqi officials are furious that a U.S. Special Forces unit killed a relative of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

The militiamen fighting U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in Iraq are “hiding behind fake walls, wearing fake clothes, pretending to be respectable citizens, but they haven’t disappeared.”

Treating wounds you can’t see, at Fort Dix, N.J.

Vets still lack timely health care.

Support grows for expanded family mental-health care offerings.

Ahead of President Bush’s expected signature on the bill, making it law, here is a new G.I. Bill study guide…

  

VFA News Analysis: June 27, 2008

A deadly attack in Iraq raises further questions about that country’s stability.

The U.S. monthly death toll in Afghanistan sets a new, grim mark – 39 dead in June.

The Pentagon faces $100 billion in equipment replacement and repair costs – which threatens to hamper military efforts to add 92,000 soldiers and Marines to the rolls. We should not forget that we must work to make our troops who have served in combat whole again — that no budget issue should stand in the way of honoring those whose service honors us all.

A Senate panel votes to improve Veterans Affairs care for female vets – an issue that the VA has found to be lagging on. VA officials have admitted they have a problem and have vowed to work on it.

Highlights of the new G.I. Bill – part of the $162 billion war funding legislation soon to reach President Bush’s desk.

The first new Vet Center on the West Coast – in 12 years.

The spouses of those deploying ready for their own battle during a workshop at Fort Rucker. Reaching out to vets elsewhere…