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…

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