VFA News Analysis: September 19, 2008

Defense Secretary Bob Gates said a strategy change for Afghanistan is under consideration due to rising violence in the country and he insisted the U.S. has not neglected Afhganistan. Yet no real troop decisions for Afghanistan, where our forces are already stretched too thinly, can be made without making decisions about troop levels in Iraq. Marine Corps Gen. James T. Conway, the commandant of the Corps, said troop decisions are a zero-sum matter and that if more are needed in Afghanistan, they will have to be drawn from Iraq or elsewhere. Conway said the time is right to send 2,000 Marines slated for November deployment to Iraq to Afghanistan instead. He told reporters that his personal belief is the Marines are more needed in Afghanistan than Iraq. It certainly looks like it will be a hard winter in Afghanistan, where war and drought have created a dire food shortage.

A status of forces agreement that officials said was near to completion a month ago is about to come undone — with immunity for U.S. troops and contractors against Iraqi law the major knot left to be untangled. The wrangling over the agreement now seems to extend beyond President George W. Bush’s term in office, despite concessions made by the administration to speed approval. While the war in Iraq continues, and negotiations sputter, our brave National Guard members continue to be deployed to the region instead of remaining ready to protect us close to home. The anxiety of continuing Guard deployments tears at families and communities. Some never return. 

Could a blood test one day provide troops with a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis? PTSD is as real as any physical war wound, and a definitive and simple test for diagnosing PTSD would be a huge step forward for improving treatment and reducing the stigma. “When we learn more about the biology of PTSD, I think this will help with stigma,” said Dr. Thomas Neylan, head of the PTSD program at the San Francisco V.A. Medical Center.

No family of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, whether in hostile or “non-hostile” conditions, should be kept in the dark. “I don’t even know where he’s at, at this time,” said the father of Sgt. Darris Dawson, who was apparently killed along with another sergeant in Iraq by a U.S. soldier. The military has a long record of attempting to conceal the running price of war on its troops, said Bobby Muller, VFA’s president.

Like war itself, the effects of war are also hell…

Both presidential candidates urge the Ivy League schools to accept military recruiting programs again. Speaking at a national service forum at Columbia University this month, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said that “the notion that young people here at Columbia or anywhere, in any university, aren’t offered the choice, the option of participating in military service, I think is a mistake.” Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, agreed: “I don’t think that’s right.”

The health system for veterans creaking under the growing demand for care. This has prompted Congress to consider allocating funds a year ahead of time to keep end-of-year budget battles and political wrangling from impacting the timely passage of financing for veterans’ health care.

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