VFA News Analysis: July 14, 2008

A long-term agreement on the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq was never reached between Iraqi officials and the Bush Administration. The effort to craft an agreement has now been abandoned, to be picked up by whomever becomes the next U.S. president. Attacks in Afghanistan are deadly for American troops. Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, is now calling for 10,000 more troops to be deployed there as part of an effort to shift focus from Iraq to Afghanistan. Obama plans to visit Iraq and Afghanistan and joining him will be Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska. Obama has a plan for Iraq.

Our National Guard units are being deployed to combat with a kind of regularity never seen before — and the strains it is creating are glaring. Equipment shortages are hamstringing the Guard. Guard members are 25 percent more likely to suffer psychological wounds in combat. What’s more — there’s plenty of demand for our Guard here at home.  The cost to our Guard members is measured in blood, sweat, tears and flat out money.

We need to stop allowing our Guard to be treated as members of the active-duty military — and we need to help those who have been combat-bruised readjust to civilian life.

More combat vets seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder…

Walking to protest a war…

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