By Leo Shane III
Published: August 31, 2010
Today is the official end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, but exactly what that means for troops on the ground and the long-term U.S. presence in the Middle East still isn't clear. Luckily, there are at least four major events today to help explain that.
We'll be liveblogging major speeches all day at this site, and you can offer your opinions on the events too by leaving comments in our interactive chat window or by including the tag #StripesObama in your tweets. The first speech starts at 1045am, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaking to the American Legion convention in Milwaukee.
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 31, 2010
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Amid the commemorations and speeches marking the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Defense Secretary Robert Gates — without mentioning the name “Bush” — gave a nod to the Republicans who are demanding the Obama administration give credit to President George W. Bush for ordering the 2007 troop “surge.”
But Gates, in his first public remarks after a two-week summer vacation, also quickly parlayed his comments on Iraq into a call for “willingness to see it through” in Afghanistan, a message the White House is likely to drill down this week.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 31, 2010
Today is the official end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, but exactly what that means for troops on the ground and the long-term U.S. presence in the Middle East still isn't clear. Luckily, there are at least four major events today to help explain that.
We'll be liveblogging major speeches all day at this site, and you can offer your opinions on the events too by leaving comments in our interactive chat window or by including the tag #StripesObama in your tweets. The first speech starts at 1045am, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaking to the American Legion convention in Milwaukee.
By Megan McCloskey
Published: August 30, 2010
TBI is the "signature wound" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but the science on exactly what it is and how to treat it is limited. But about 1,000 DoD and VA care providers are gathered in Washington to discuss what is known, swap best treatment practices among the services and learn about new research at the 4th annual TBI Military Training Conference.
Col. Robert Saum, who recently took over the Defense Center for Excellence for Psychological Health and TBI after the previous director left amid accusations of failure, joked that he had been on the job for "two months, nine days and 47 minutes."
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 30, 2010
Officials from the Deparment of Veterans Affairs held a conference call this morning to outline details of the new Agent Orange Rules to be published tomorrow. The information was designed to explain the timeline for veterans seeking new disability claims, but also to defend the department against inevitable attacks from Congress over the changes.
Under the new rules three illnesses previously suspected of having links to Agent Orange exposure -- Parkinson’s Disease, Hairy Cell and other types of chronic, b-cell leukemia, and Ischemic Heart Disease -- will be treated as "presumptive" illnesses. Veterans who can show both a diagnosis of those medical problems and exposure to the chemical defoliant will no longer have to prove a connection between the two facts to receive compensation.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 30, 2010
Iraq will be the main news story again all this week, as the U.S. military officially ends its combat mission there and President Obama delivers remarks to troops at Fort Bliss and the nation as a whole in separate speeches on Tuesday. But, before that, the White House is asking all Americans to show their support for the efforts of U.S. troops returning from the controversial war.
This weekend administration officials unveiled their Saluting Service in Iraq initiative at the official White House website. The social media campaign is designed to encourage all Americans use social networks like Twitter and Facebook to show their support for the work done overseas, and offer their own personal thank yous.
By Jeff Schogol
Published: August 27, 2010
The total number of retroactive stop-loss claims paid has rocketed from about 30,000 to more than 55,000 in the past month, officials said.
Troops who stop-lossed can receive $500 for every month they were kept beyond their initial separation date. About 145,000 people are eligible for the money, but finding them has been a challenge.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 26, 2010
The New York Times today has a piece on the backlash to Defense Secretary Robert Gates' plan to slash the number of flag and general officers, as part of broader cost-cutting measures. The number of generals and admirals has grown by about 100 since 2001, and Gates has vowed to trim at least 50 from the ranks in coming years.
But critics have charged that the move won't really save significant money -- perhaps a few million dollars in a $700-billion-plus defense budget. And the Times interviewed several retired generals who argued the top officers' skills and knowledge is needed to keep the military prepared for future challenges, and bristled at the idea that they represent rampant government waste.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 26, 2010
The Senate Appropriations Committee this week released report language for their proposed 2011 financial service/general government budget bill, and it again included support for a mere 1.4 percent pay raise for federal workers in 2011. Their House counterparts have not yet weighed in on the matter, but the 1.4 percent figure matches the White House's proposal from earlier this year.
Federal workers unions have lobbied in past years to have their annual pay raise match servicemembers' promised increase, and House members in May approved a 1.9 percent raise for troops in 2011. But while Congress often unofficially links both raises, members have resisted any formal legislation tying the two together.
By Jeff Schogol
Published: August 25, 2010
Don’t worry about losing your extra pays and combat zone tax exclusion when combat operations in Iraq officially come to an end.
Starting Sept. 1, the U.S. mission in Iraq will officially change to mentoring Iraqi troops and police, marking a symbolic end to the U.S. combat mission there. Even though the Defense Department has said the move won’t affect troops’ pay, rumors along those lines have persisted, prompting Stars and Stripes to ask the department about this matter.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 25, 2010
Veterans groups praised the Department of Veterans Affairs last year when officials announced they would add three new diseases to the list of "presumptive illnesses" connected to the use of the Vietnam-era defoliant Agent Orange. But senators concerned about the cost and precedent of such a change put a 60-day hold on money related to the change, and have asked the VA for more information on why Agent Orange claims should be expanded.
On Tuesday, in a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said he's happy to defend the decision. "It was the right decision, and the President and I are proud to finally provide this group of Veterans the care and benefits they have long deserved."
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 24, 2010
In what was likely his last appearance in the Pentagon briefing room, soon-to-be retiring Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway once more waded into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” waters with his straight-shooter candor by suggesting that “very religious” Marines with “moral concerns” about homosexuality might not be forced to live with their gay battle buddies.
Marines are billeted – or assigned sleeping quarters – in twos. Already earlier this year, Conway told Military.com that he "would not ask our Marines" to bunk in the same rooms with openly gay Marines. But exactly what about cohabitation worried him was unclear.
By Jeff Schogol
Published: August 24, 2010
The Defense Department still doesn’t have a policy on troops’ privately owned weapons – even though it was due months ago. An independent review into the November 2009 shooting at Fort Hood found that without such a policy, the services have been left to fend for themselves.
“The individual services have established privately owned weapons policies, which set minimum standards and task installation commanders to establish installation-specific requirements,” the report said.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 24, 2010
Vice President Joe Biden's speech to the Veterans of Foreign War convention noted that progress in Iraq has been inspiring but also frustrating, that violence is down but still threatening, and that the U.S. mission there is winding down but still very active.When President Barack Obama speaks to the nation about the Iraq war next week, expect to hear many of the same contradictions.
But Biden was clear in his remarks that the president fulfilled his pledge to "end the war responsibly," a theme that Obama will also likely echo in his upcoming remarks. This week, for the first time since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the total number of U.S. troops in country dropped below 50,000.
By Jeff Schogol
Published: August 23, 2010
A leading advocacy group for gay and lesbian troops and veterans has blasted a Defense Department survey sent to military spouses about how they feel about repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Servicemembers United released a memo Monday that says the survey is based on the assumption that repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” will hurt family readiness. The group also took issue with one question that asks spouses if they would move if a gay or lesbian servicemember lived in on-base housing with his or her partner.
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 23, 2010
UPDATE: Urged by reader email, Stripes Central did a bit of fact checking on the historical personnel numbers for USAID that Defense Secretary Robert Gates cited in a San Francisco speech, and reported in the below blog item. We found some discrepancies. Scroll to bottom for more.
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By Leo Shane III
Published: August 20, 2010
Today marks the final day in our series looking at the political and human impact of the Iraq War, a controversial fight which took 4,414 American servicemembers' lives and cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $750 billion. The combat mission there ends Aug. 31, but this week saw the symbolic withdrawal of several hundred soldiers from the country in the final combat patrol for U.S. forces there.
Little will change right now for the 50,000 troops expected to remain in Iraq for another 16 months. But the troops who left this week called the moment an historic occasion, and a chance to reflect on their losses and accomplishments.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 19, 2010
On Wednesday a group of 20 senators announced the formation of the Senate Military Family Caucus, the first legislative coalition in that chamber to focus on the impact of war on spouses and children of troops. The move comes almost a year after House members launched their own military family caucus.
In a statement organizers said the Senate caucus members will work closely with their house colleagues to "improve programs and services for military families, and to focus on the unique and growing challenges they face." That includes a closer focus on military childcare, family health care, education benefits, spouse employment programs, and mental health services for troops' families.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 18, 2010
Veterans groups who have been crusading against military fakers aren't pleased with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today. In a 2-1 decision Tuesday, the panel struck down the Stolen Valor Act, which allows for heavy fines and possible jail time against individuals falsely claiming to have earned the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award.
The decision centers on Xavier Alvarez, a California water district board member was indicted in 2007 for claiming to have earned the honor in a public meeting in 2007. He was sentenced to more than 400 hours of community service at a veterans hospital and fined $5,000, but appealed on the ground that his First Amendment freedoms had been violated.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 18, 2010
This afternoon Reps. Randy Forbes, Glenn Nye, Bobby Scott and Rob Wittman have planned an open forum with local officials in Suffolk to talk about the potentially devastating effect the closure of Joint Forces Command could have on the local economy and national security. The lawmakers see it as the opening round in what could be a lengthy fight to undo significant budget cuts outlined by the Pentagon earlier this month.
Last week the lawmakers, along with Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates questioning the legal basis for his budget cuts, saying that Congress needs to weigh in on the issue before any base closing moves can occur. Pentagon officials insist they can make the changes without getting lawmakers' approval.
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 17, 2010
Drones with laser beams attached to their heads? It ain’t easy being the Missile Defense Agency director.
In a little over an hour, Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O’Reilly juggled the complex physics of solid-fueled rocket boosters, the wary diplomacy of Russians who refuse U.S. invitations to join the missile defense network, the Senate politics of nonproliferation treaties, the faulty production lines of giant defense contractors, all amid the shrinking budget “efficiencies” of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 17, 2010
Sunday was the deadline for troops to complete the Defense Department's "don't ask, don't tell" attitudes survey, and officials at the Pentagon said the final tally on completed responses was 109,883 -- a response rate of only about 27.5 percent.
That's below the 30 to 40 percent response rate researchers from the University of Texas at Austin say an average email or online surveys should pull in, and well below the 52 percent participation rate officials at the Office of Personnel Management got in their similarly-structured 2010 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 16, 2010
It'll be months before Defense Secretary Robert Gates starts talking seriously about stepping down from his cabinet post, but news that he's looking at a 2011 departure date has already started the question of who's next in the capital and the Pentagon.
The folks over at Foreign Policy magazine have the most frequently mentioned names for the job: Under Secretary of Defense for policy Michèle Flournoy, Center for Strategic and International Studies president John Hamre, CIA Director Leon Panetta, and former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig. They also mention Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a dark horse, although that move seems unlikely.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 16, 2010
For weeks White House officials have been working to downplay the July 2011 target date for the start of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. But in interviews with select media this weekend Gen. David Petraeus took that issue even further, saying he may argue against any withdrawal if conditions on the ground there don't improve.
"It would be premature to have any kind of assessment at this juncture about what we may or may not be able to transition," the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. "What the president very much wants from me, and, and what we talked about in the Oval Office is the responsibility of a military commander on the ground to provide as best professional military advice, leave the politics to him. Certainly I’m aware of the context within which I offer that advice, but that just informs the advice, it doesn’t drive it. The situation on the ground drives it."
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 13, 2010
UPDATE: Urged by reader email, Stripes Central did a bit of fact checking on the historical personnel numbers for USAID that Defense Secretary Robert Gates cited in a San Francisco speech, and reported in the below blog item. We found some discrepancies. Scroll to bottom for more.
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By Kevin Baron
Published: August 12, 2010
In always-sunny San Diego, Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited the crew of the Navy’s USS Higgins, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that is just one piece of the Obama administration’s new, more mobile ballistic missile defense system for the future.
Last fall, Obama’s national security team scrapped the Bush-era missile defense plan for Europe. The old plan was based on using large, ground based interceptor missiles, or GBIs, designed to take down similarly large incoming ballistic missiles.
By Jeff Schogol
Published: August 12, 2010
You could win up to $1,000 by submitting the best idea for how the Defense Department can save money.
The department is looking to show Congress it can cut costs to assuage some lawmakers who would rather use money earmarked for defense spending on social programs. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is looking for $100 billion in savings over time, and he has already recommended eliminating Joint Forces Command and other cost-savings measures.
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 11, 2010
Stars and Stripes is heading back on the road with Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week. First stop: Tampa.
Gen. James Mattis takes command of Central Command on Wednesday evening, the final coda of a long sonata that began with a little Rolling Stone article, crescendo’ed into the sacking of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the installation of former CENTCOM chief Gen. David Petraeus as Afghanistan war commander.
Expect some kind words from the SecDef and others.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 11, 2010
The last round of U.S. base closures in 2005 was wildly unpopular with lawmakers and panned by financial experts as much less cost effective than military planners had hoped. So no one stood up to applaud when Defense Secretary Robert Gates mentioned the idea of more base closings in his long-term budget cut plans on Monday.
"This is obviously a politically fraught topic," Gates told reporters. "Currently, Congress has placed legal constraints on DOD's ability to close installations. But hard is not impossible, and I hope Congress will work with us to reduce unnecessary costs in this part of the defense enterprise."
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 10, 2010
With JFCOM walking to the executioner’s gallows, Iraq war commander Gen. Ray Odierno will have about one year in Norfolk before the military needs to find him a new one.
You know what other jobs will need filling around this time next year? The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Army’s chief of staff.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 10, 2010
Even stars on your shoulder won't protect you from the budget cuts announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday. He plans to cut at least 50 general and flag officer positions in order to curtail a military he said has become "a top-heavy hierarchy that more reflects 20th-century protocols than 21st-century realities."
The services currently boast about 950 general and flag officers (including 40 four-stars and 150 three-stars), up about 100 from 2001 levels. Lawmakers including Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., have complained that those numbers are too high, and the ratio of top officers to rank-and-file troops has fallen out of balance.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 9, 2010
Veterans frustrated over the complex and sometimes unfair rules surrounding the post-9/11 GI Bill benefits smiled last week with the passage of Sen. Daniel Akaka's overhaul of the education funds, designed to simplify and even out the program. But military families hoping for looser rules on transferability probably weren't as excited.
The changes, already approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee and to be debated by the House next month, would provide more money for folks attending private or out-of-state colleges and fewer restrictions on housing or book stipends. Both of those changes will also help out spouses and children attending college through transferred GI Bill benefits.
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 5, 2010
The Pentagon said Michael Hastings, the Rolling Stone reporter who wrote the fait accompli article ending Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s career, had his latest embed request revoked because it was determined he broke the “ground rules” during that interview and was no longer considered credible or trustworthy.
“If you don’t respect ground rules, how do you expect us to trust you?” said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, in a briefing Thursday. “How do you expect us to extend to you privileges such as embedding with a unit? This is not a game; there are lives on the line.”
By Megan McCloskey
Published: August 5, 2010
President Obama seems to have lost his sheen in the Middle East. A poll released today shows the Arab public is much less enamored with Obama this year than they were when he first took office.
A University of Maryland survey last month of nearly 4,000 people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates shows a precipitous drop in optimism about America's role in the Middle East. Just 16 percent said they were hopeful about Obama's policies in their corner of the world, compared to 51 percent last year.
By Jeff Schogol
Published: August 4, 2010
An Air Force general who was wrongly accused of launching unauthorized airstrikes against North Vietnam, relieved of command and demoted to a two-star general has been vindicated nearly 40 years later. The White House announced Wednesday that Maj. Gen. John D. Lavelle has been nominated to be posthumously reinstated as a full general.
Lavelle was accused of ordering 28 unauthorized raids against North Vietnam between January and March of 1972 and then falsifying reports in an effort to cover them up. The airstrikes came at time when President Nixon had halted most bombing during peace negotiations, prompting his demotion.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 4, 2010
New postal regulations limit tobacco products being sent through the mail to 10 ounces or less, a move that has curbed cheap cigarette sales across state lines but also squeezed troops' favorite smokes and chewing tobacco from care packages sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now one lawmaker wants to change that. Before the House left for its August recess, California Rep. Duncan D. Hunter introduced legislation to repeal the limits on mailing tobacco products for packages sent into combat zones.
By Megan McCloskey
Published: August 3, 2010
Typically when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff makes an appearance at family-readiness gatherings, he spends most of his time thanking them for their support and telling them how vital they are to the military's success. And Adm. Mike Mullen did a lot of that in New Orleans this week at the National Guard Family Program Volunteer Workshop.
But he also made some interesting comments about the pre-deployment checklist that servicemembers have to fill out before heading to Iraq or Afghanistan to ensure their lives are in order. Among questions about finances and legal paperwork, many units also ask for permission to contact the servicemember's family throughout the deployment to keep them informed about what's going on with the unit, benefits and entitlements and support resources available to them. A servicemember can check "yes" or "no."
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 3, 2010
As the fighting gets tougher in Afghanistan fewer and fewer Americans continue to support U.S. efforts there, according to a new poll released by USA Today and Gallup on Tuesday. Among individuals surveyed last week, 43 percent said U.S. leaders "made a mistake" in sending military forces to Afghanistan, and nearly two-thirds believe that those military operations are going poorly today.
The poll questions came about a month after the dismissal of the top U.S. military official in the country and just days after the leak of more than 91,000 sensitive documents about combat operations in Afghanistan. But Gallup officials said Americans views of the war have been increasingly pessimistic since last summer, suggesting the latest round of bad news isn't solely to blame.
By Kevin Baron
Published: August 2, 2010
Before Gen. David Petraeus took his oath as the new Afghanistan war commander, he told Congress he would review the rules of engagement but hinted no radical changes were likely.
For a first step, Petraeus issued a 24-point Counterinsurgency Guidance on Monday. It reads as a list of pieces of advice, including: live among the people; walk, don’t ride, on patrols; take off your sunglasses when talking with locals. And drink lots of tea.
By Leo Shane III
Published: August 2, 2010
President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a "major speech" at 11:30 this morning to the Disabled American Veterans convention in Georgia. It'll be his first address before the group, which boasts 1.2 million members and is still unfortunately adding more disabled veterans to its ranks with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Friday VA Secretary Eric Shinseki sat down with me to detail some of the successes and shortfalls within his department that the president will discuss in the speech. But White House officials said Obama will also focus largely on Iraq, and the end of the combat mission there later this month.
