The Military

Over the last two years or so, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been doing some seriously innovative work on behalf of the troops. I've seen this firsthand, focusing on efforts like working at the grassroots worker level and with private-industry vendors. This really does serve vets better, and looks like taxpayers get better return for tax dollars.

VA is also using social media to help vets understand how VA can help, in forms including the VA blog and outreach via social media including Facebook.

Marcos Cintron.
Brian Backus.
Alvin Boatright.
Edwaard Dixon.
James Harvey.
Josue Ibarra.
Tyler Kreinz.
Gustavo Rios-Ordonez.
Scott Smith.
Alan Snyder.
Jared Verbeek.

These are names of young Americans whose deaths were publicly announced the morning after President Obama’s message about our role in Afghanistan. President Obama has sacrificed their lives and others in a futile and extraordinarily expensive war. Ask their families if they think the president’s approach to troop withdrawal in Afghanistan is "balanced,” as advertised.

When we went to war at the beginning, we were fully unprepared. We went from peace to war overnight. Our army under Tommy Franks and the administration with Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush had no hands-on experience, and Congress was made up of peacetime people concerned with housekeeping issues. Not until Defense Secretary Robert Gates came to the position did a steady hand come to policy in the Middle East conflicts. But Gen. David Petraeus also brought stability and success to a mess he did not create. At his confirmation hearing today to become the next CIA director, he should speak plainly about his assessment of the situation as we enter the post-Gates period.

It remains to be seen how President Obama will explain his decision on the Afghanistan drawdown tonight, but if early reports are to be believed, he has listened to the military and ignored those within the administration and his own party arguing for a shift to a counterterrorism strategy.

If he does announce a withdrawal of only a token number of troops this month, and not front-loading the drawdown, Obama would be heeding the advice of outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chief commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus. Both have advocated keeping a substantial number of the 30,000 “surge” troops through next year’s fighting season. Yet public opinion in general now favors the removal of the troops as quickly as possible.

Why is our president trying to create a constitutional crisis over the War Powers Act?

Under the act the president can engage in hostile activities for 90 days, or he needs congressional approval.

It is clear that the U.S. is engaged in hostile activities in Libya when it sends drones to bomb Gadhafi forces and military targets. It might be less clear when we're spending $10 million daily to support the NATO alliance in its aggression against Gadhafi.

We are only weeks away from President Obama’s announced troop drawdown in Afghanistan. But with the scheduled withdrawal supposed to begin July 1, the president has not yet decided on whether the number will be “significant” — his words — or “modest,” in the words of the Defense secretary, Robert Gates.

I heard a couple weeks ago that about 20,000 soldiers, or two-thirds of the “surge” troops, were expected to return home next month. But that is considerably higher than the anticipation now that only about 5,000 would return — the argument being that it would be a mistake to sharply reduce troop numbers during the Taliban’s fighting season. Gates, making his farewell tour of Afghanistan, has said that he would opt to “keep the shooters and take the support out first.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants only 3,000 out.

The Pentagon is readying a new strategy that would treat cyberattacks from a foreign nation as acts of war.

The quote that caught my attention was the military official who told The Wall Street Journal: "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks."

That’s all very well, but what would that particular official say if Iran — which believes Israel and the U.S. to be behind the Stuxnet cyberworm that sabotaged its nuclear program — applied the same logic and felt entitled to strike back by putting a missile down an American or Israeli smokestack? Read more...

A Department of Defense agency just announced the recipients of the Employer Support Freedom Award.

This is a big deal, since the U.S. is asking a lot from members of the National Guard and Reserve, often serving multiple deployments under fire.

This is a burden for the companies where the troops work also, and the Department of Defense folks are showing their appreciation for that with the Secretary of Defense Freedom Award. It’s a big deal, and for more, check out www.FreedomAward.mil. Here’s the list of the 2011 recipients:

A lot’s going on in Washington that few people hear about, where VA employees figure out how to serve vets better. They organize using Net-based tech, and let the boss know of stuff like redundant work that can be eliminated. Here’s the next phase of their innovation efforts.

On behalf of the Under Secretary for Health and the VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2), we are excited to announce the launch of the 2011 VA Employee Innovation Competition website to solicit ideas that improve veterans’ health and healthcare. The site may be found at:

https://vha.ideascale.com

The United States benefits from conscription because national spirit increases, national unity improves, neighborhoods become safer and society grows healthier. With conscription, troubled teens who normally head to street corners enter the military and receive the training, discipline and experience that propel them to a stable and secure life. They unite with people of all sexes, races and religions to work toward a common good. This allows neighborhoods to become safer and society to become stronger.

The workforce gets better workers, families get better mothers and fathers, and the country gets a more unified citizenship.