VFA News Analysis: September 23, 2008

More than $13 billion earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction was stolen or wasted, according to a former Iraqi official. The official said a report of the frauds was sent to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials but was never published because “nobody cares.” We certainly care about the cost of this war on our own men and women — and the opportunity cost of a less-ready military and a still metastasizing situation in Afghanistan. 

Two U.S. Army sergeants apparently gunned down by a fellow soldier in Iraq earlier this month were apparently counseling the soldier before the violence erupted. The deaths were “a tragic and senseless loss of two professional soldiers…who were also husbands and fathers.”

In recognition of the National Guard’s nearly active-duty like role in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Barack Obama administration would elevate the Guard to give it a seat at the table on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The promise, made by Sen. Joseph Biden, the Delaware Democrat who is Obama’s vice presidential running mate, was announced at the National Guard Association convention this weekend in Baltimore. The higher profile is deserved as 52 percent of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are Guard or Reserve members, Biden said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates saluted the Guard during his speech, noting just how widely deployed its men and women are. “Today, the Guard is engaged in more than 40 countries around the world, in places such as Bosnia, Kosovo, the Sinai, the Horn of Africa and Guantanamo Bay,” Gates said. Since 9-11, more than 660,000 Guard members have mobilized, the most since World War II. Spending on the National Guard, to help keep it deploying and used at the current breakneck pace, is now at a national record.  The Guard is also paying a very high price.

The insurgency in Afghanistan is growing, stretching thin U.S. and NATO forces ahead of an expectedly brutal winter of fighting. 2007 was three-times as bloody as 2006, and 2008 is already outpacing 2007 in violence.

Iraq’s Sunni-dominated Awakening Councils — the name given to militias on the U.S. payroll in Iraq who have helped tamp down on violence — are beginning to turn violent as the American military moves to transfer control of half the councils to the Shiite-led government. “Our government is after us,” says one militiaman. “We sacrificed hundreds of our sons to drive al-Qaeda out. Now the government says we are no different than the terrorists.” This civil strife could get much worse.

The Veterans Affairs Department is increasing benefits for mild brain trauma. This is the first time the VA has acknowledged that veterans suffering even less severe versions of the current wars’ signature wound will still struggle to earn a living. Too many of our veterans are returning from war zones with undiagnosed psychological problems — our veterans need more mental health screenings, a VA doctor tells the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Members of the longest-serving unit in Iraq look back. Almost 500 days at war and away from home.

Helping those who help veterans with PTSD and brain injuries.

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