October 30, 2009 by admin.

 By Rick Maze - Staff writer

Posted : Thursday Oct 29, 2009 11:48:07 EDT

Two Florida lawmakers propose an expansion of Post-9/11 GI Bill coverage to include reimbursement for the cost of college preparation classes.Reps. Adam Putnam, a Republican, and Ron Klein, a Democrat, are sponsors of the bill, called the Test Prep for Heroes Act.The bill would have the Post-9/11 GI Bill cover reimbursement for classes that help students get ready for college preparation tests. The new education benefit program already covers up to $2,000 for licensing and certification tests, and up to $1,200 for the cost of tutoring, but it does not cover classes and courses that help prepare for college placement tests.Putnam said the preparatory classes are important to service members. “Sometimes these tests cover subjects the service-members haven’t studied in years, which can put them at a comparative disadvantage to other applicants who may have recently graduated from high school,” he said.Costs for test preparation classes vary, but are in the range of $500 to $1,200 depending on the location, class size and test.Klein said the bill, HR 3948, is an example of a small change that could have big results.“By providing access to more tools to help our veterans prepare for entrance exams and licensing tests, we can level the playing field and ensure they do not miss a single opportunity on the road to a college education,” Klein said.The bill, with more than 20 cosponsors, was referred to the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which has accumulated a pile of proposals for modifying the new GI Bill. Decisions on what changes will be made are not expected until next year, when the Veterans Affairs Department provides Congress with recommendations on what would improve claims processing.

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October 16, 2009 by admin.

By NANCY A. YOUSSEF AND JONATHAN S. LANDAYMcClatchy NewspapersArmy Gen. Stanley McChrystal has said that even if it sent 30,000additional troops, the U.S. would risk failure in Afghanistan under thecurrent strategy. His resourcing plan offers President Barack Obamathree options based on the estimated risk, said two U.S. militaryofficials, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized tospeak publicly and because the proposal remains classified.The low-risk option, which McChrystal has said offers the best chance tocontain the Taliban-led insurgency and stabilize Afghanistan, calls for80,000 additional U.S. troops, while his medium-risk option puts thenumber at 40,000 to 45,000, the officials said.”This is a fully resourced COIN (counterinsurgency) strategy with thelow-risk option,” one official said. The current Army counterinsurgencymanual, however, estimates that an all-out COIN campaign in a countrywith Afghanistan’s population would require about 600,000 troops.Some 20,000 additional forces would be deployed under McChrystal’shigh-risk option, but that would mean the greatest risk of failure, thesame official said. There now are 67,000 U.S. troops and 52,000coalition forces in Afghanistan.White House officials have leaked word that McChrystal’s maximum optioncalls for 60,000 to 80,000 or more troops, but that many aren’tavailable in the near future.According to Army readiness figures, four lighter brigades needed forAfghanistan’s rough terrain - three from the 101st Airborne Division atFort Campbell, Ky., and one from the 10th Mountain Division at FortDrum, N.Y. - will be ready by December. A fifth brigade, also from the101st Airborne, could deploy by March. Those would total roughly 25,000troops who would be accompanied by several thousand support troops.Marine Corps Commandant James T. Conway has said the Marines coulddeploy no more than 18,000 troops in Afghanistan, where 10,600 Marinesalready are serving. Marine officials said an additional 7,400 Marinescould be available in three months.The Army and Marines could deploy that many more troops to Afghanistanwithout extending tours of duty or reducing time at home between tours,which could further strain the forces. Indeed, the Army, led by Gen.Peter Chiarelli, the vice chief of staff of the Army, has said thatextending tours to 15 months, as the military did during the 2007 surgein Iraq, could break the forces.Army soldiers serve now one year of combat and get a minimum of one yearoff. Marines serve seven-month deployments and get at least 14 monthsoff.In addition, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates could order airmen,seamen and members of National Guard and Reserves, but militaryofficials said that wouldn’t substantially boost the total number oftroops available.Military readiness figures are fluid, and today’s numbers are a snapshotof what the military could deploy. If the military accelerated thedrawdown in Iraq, which would present serious logistical hurdles, thenumber of troops available for Afghanistan could rise, for example.A change in strategy also could alter the size and type of forcesneeded. The Obama administration could ask for more trainers and fewercombat troops to build up the Afghan National Army, which currently has95,000 troops.ings to determine how attachments are handled.Afghanistan also could demand more U.S. troops, however. Many coalitioncountries, including Britain, Germany and Italy, are facing mountingdomestic pressure to leave Afghanistan. But earlier this week, BritishPrime Minister Gordon Brown authorized an additional 500 troops toreinforce the roughly 9,000 British forces serving there.The Obama administration is reviewing its Afghanistan strategy asviolence against U.S., coalition and Afghan forces is at the highestlevels of the war, which entered it ninth year earlier this month.”McChrystal has already said that the status quo cannot be sustained,”the U.S. military official pointed out, referring to a separateassessment written by the U.S. commander that described the situation inAfghanistan as “dire.” It was delivered to Obama last month.In that assessment, McChrystal argued for more resources.”Our campaign in Afghanistan has been historically under-resourced andremains so today. Almost every aspect of our collective effort andassociated resourcing has lagged behind a growing insurgency,” he wrote.”Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it.”

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October 14, 2009 by admin.

By Kate Andersen Brower
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said a decision on his strategy for Afghanistan will be made “in the coming weeks” as he assesses what the U.S. needs to do with both military and civilian resources.The president said he wants to achieve stability in the region, including in Pakistan, by training Afghan forces and boosting agriculture and education in both countries.“We are going through a very deliberate process,” Obama said at the White House, referring to the series of meetings he is holding with national security and military advisers. The next one is set for tomorrow morning.Obama made the comments after a lunch meeting with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain. Spain has about 800 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s International Security Assistance Force, and sent 450 additional troops to provide security for the presidential election in August.The “principal goal remains to root out al-Qaeda and their extremist allies,” Obama said.Zapatero said that while Spanish troops have sacrificed in Afghanistan, they will continue training local forces.Zapatero, a Socialist, has been trying to rebuild ties with the U.S., which deteriorated after he pulled Spanish troops from Iraq in 2004.Afghanistan OptionsObama is examining options for the Afghan war after the top commander on the ground, General Stanley McChrystal, warned that the U.S. risks failure without doing more to protect the local population from the Taliban. In an Aug. 30 assessment, McChrystal said more international troops would be needed to provide security and train Afghan forces.Obama is coming under pressure from Republicans and some Democrats to put more resources into the eight-year-old conflict in Afghanistan. Senator John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, has said McChrystal is seeking to add 30,000 to 40,000 troops to the 68,000 the U.S. will have there by the end of the year.“The great danger now is not an American pullout,” McCain, who was his party’s 2008 presidential nominee, said Oct. 11 on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “The great danger is a half-measure” that tries to “please all ends of the political spectrum.”Guantanamo BayAlong with Afghanistan, Obama and Zapatero also discussed the status of the prisoners detained in the war against terrorism and being held U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as Iran and the Middle East and the economy.Zapatero said they are “still assessing” the number of Guantanamo prisoners that Spain will accept, “but our resolve to support President Obama in this is absolutely clear.”Obama’s promise to close Guantanamo by early next year has gotten hung up by objections from lawmakers and voters to transferring some prisoners to the U.S. for trial or detention. The administration is under pressure from lawmakers in Congress to send the detainees, who number about 200, to other countries instead of bringing them into the U.S.The two leaders said Iran must be pushed “to take a path that allows for peaceful nuclear energy” and reject building a nuclear weapon, said Obama.“I respect President Obama’s peace efforts,” said Zapatero who said he supports the call for a global reduction in nuclear weapons.Obama said he and Zapatero agreed that “the time is right” for a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians that will lead to creation of an independent Palestinian state.Zapatero said that as the global recession ebbs, he wants to encourage more U.S. companies to invest in Spain.To contact the reporter on this story: Kate Andersen Brower in Washington at Kandersen7@bloomberg.netLast Updated: October 13, 2009 15:54 EDT 

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October 9, 2009 by admin.

By Katherine McIntire Peters kpeters@govexec.com October 1, 2009New analysis of deployment data shows the Army is at or near capacity in its ability to deploy soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan, Government Executive has learned. That doesn’t bode well for Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan who reportedly is asking for as many as 40,000 additional troops.While there has been much debate about the administration’s strategy in Afghanistan and the merits of McChrystal’s request for additional troops, far less attention has been paid to the issue of whether a substantial troop increase in the next few months is even possible. Judging by an assessment by the RAND Arroyo Center, a nonprofit, federally funded research center, the Army cannot supply significantly more soldiers to Afghanistan until the United States pulls far more troops out of Iraq, something that won’t happen quickly.”There’s no additional slack to send more troops to Afghanistan without taking them [directly] from Iraq,” said Timothy Muchmore, deputy director of the Army office supporting the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review. The Army QDR office sponsored the RAND research, which was briefed to senior Defense officials on Wednesday.Officials at RAND declined to discuss the study until it is finished later this fall.The study, based on information collected by the Defense Manpower Data Center, assesses whether the Army is providing the “maximum flow” of soldiers to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The short answer is yes, according to a copy of the most recent briefing on the study, which was provided to Government Executive.The analysis found that 68 percent of soldiers in the active Army have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at least once; 21 percent are new recruits and are slated to deploy to those combat zones; 3.5 percent are in jobs key to current operations but located in the United States; and 1.5 percent are deployed elsewhere overseas, including in South Korea, the Balkans and the Sinai.That’s 94 percent of the Army directly engaged in meeting national priorities — in economic terms, that’s full employment, according to notes accompanying the briefing slides. The remaining 6 percent are considered “friction” — an economic term that refers to those in transition, and for which more detailed analysis is needed to determine why they haven’t deployed.”It is interesting to note that since 9/11, the Army has over 1 million troop years of deployment to [Iraq and Afghanistan] alone,” according to the briefing. That’s the equivalent of one soldier deployed for war for 365 days, a million times over.That number could grow much higher. McChrystal’s assessment of the situation in Afghanistan, which was leaked to the Washington Post in September, is dire. Without more troops, failure is likely, he said.In a letter to President Obama last week, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said, “I believe that you set the right goal when you called for the defeat of al Qaeida and for preventing their return to Afghanistan. I believe that General McChrystal has the right plan and is the right man for the job. And, I believe that we must give our commander in Afghanistan the resources and time he needs to successfully accomplish this task.”But Skelton also noted that Americans and Afghanis alike must see progress in 12 months, and he urged Obama to act expeditiously in providing McChrystal with the resources he requests.But given the Army’s current operational tempo, it’s hard to see how a significant troop increase could occur much earlier than next spring without extending the tours of troops in Iraq beyond 12 months and moving some troops directly from Iraq to Afghanistan. Neither option is appealing to Army leaders because they would further stress an already stressed force. Defense Secretary Robert Gates publicly has urged against taking such measures, although in some cases the Army has in fact had to move troops directly from Iraq to Afghanistan without giving them time off or retraining them for the new mission.”Most people are expecting that the increases in Afghanistan will parallel decreases in Iraq,” Muchmore said. For every brigade that is pulled out of Iraq, the combat brigade previously slated to replace it would instead go to Afghanistan. The operating tempo stays high, but it doesn’t get higher. As long as commanders in Iraq can effectively manage the drawdown there for another year — something that is by no means certain — the buildup in Afghanistan is feasible over time. But it doesn’t allow for the quick surge of troops into Afghanistan that McChrystal indicated he would need.”Literally 50 percent of all combat brigades available today are deployed, both active and reserve,” said Muchmore. “We’re one year on, one year off. There’s no slack. Gen. McChrystal wants more folks, but there’s nothing sitting in the Army’s cupboard to do that.”The RAND briefing provides the analytical framework for understanding what most military officials have long understood intuitively: The Army is carrying the bulk of the load in the current wars. Although it has 39 percent of the active-duty forces, it has contributed 52 percent of the deployed forces to Iraq and Afghanistan.What’s more, it has done so with a smaller percentage of troops in supporting infrastructure positions than any of the other services. The Navy, which has been deploying forces regularly for six decades, has a forces-to-infrastructure ratio of 55 percent to 45 percent. In the Army, that ratio is 71 percent to 29 percent. To many in the Army, that’s another indicator that the service is out of balance. For one thing, it means there are far fewer job assignments where soldiers who have experienced multiple deployments can expect to spend a year or two at home with their families.Numerous indicators of stress, such as rates of suicide, divorce and spousal and child abuse, are rising and suggest the Army could be reaching a breaking point. Army leaders are proud of the fact that the service recruits from the top 30 percent of American youth as measured by fitness, health, discipline and education. Yet, “That top 30 percent is committing suicide at a rate above the national average,” Muchmore noted. “The numbers just keep going up and up. To me, it seems like the cumulative effects of multiple long deployments.” 

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October 1, 2009 by admin.

By Bob Brewin   09/30/09 05:39 pm ET

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki announced that starting on Friday veterans who have not yet received their GI bill payments for school tuition and housing will be able to apply online off the VA’s Web site, which also has further details on the emergency payment program.Shinseki said on Sept. 25 that vets could receive emergency payments up to $3,000 by going in person to one of VA’s 57 regional offices.The secretary said he decided to add the online option to better serve veterans who would need to travel long distances to an office to receive an emergency payment.Veterans strapped for funds will get cash in hand quicker by going to the nearest VA office, because checks from online applications for will be mailed, and who wants to believe “the check is in the mail” bit?Student veterans without cars who want to pick up checks at an office can request a ride from volunteers who work in VA medical centers. Veterans should call the closest medical center to ask for the volunteer transportation coordinator to schedule a ride. The rides are available on a first-come, first-served, space-available basis, VA said.Shinseki has demonstrated the kind of top-level leadership rarely seen in Washington. I believe this reflects the fact that as a wounded Vietnam veteran he truly understands the demands on troops the nation sends into combat.”Our veterans went the extra mile for their country,” Shinseki said in announcing the online emergency payment option. “One of our top priorities in transforming VA is to be, first and foremost, the advocate for veterans.”

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