Gen. McChrystal and former Navy SEAL on Afghanistan and leadership
CBS NEWS
June 15, 2017
The Trump administration may increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. This week, Defense Secretary James Mattis was granted authority to set those troop levels.
Asked about Mattis' new authority, retired four-star Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded American and international forces in Afghanistan in 2009-2010, said it's "a good thing to empower subordinates who are closest to the problem to make decisions."
"But you don't abrogate responsibility," McChrystal said Thursday on "CBS This Morning." "So the president of the United States still has responsibility for those decisions, and the American people ultimately still have ownership of those decisions. … They may not agree going in, but when the policy is set, we all have the resolve to follow through."
McChrystal also said "it's hard to say" what the appropriate number of troops should be in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has once again been gaining ground.
"I'd certainly defer to what Jim Mattis and [Gen.] Mick Nicholson on the ground are recommending," McChrystal said. "But the question I think we need to ask ourselves is, if we send more troops and that doesn't solve the problem or make the change we hope, what will we do then? And that's a question that the nation needs to ask itself about its long-term aims and objectives in Afghanistan and what we're willing to devote to achieve it."
McChrystal served as commander of the Joint Special Operations Command and was tasked with re-imagining the battlefields of the Middle East. McChrystal outlined how he did it in his 2015 bestseller, "Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World."
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CBS RADIO LAUNCHES FIRST-EVER COMPREHENSIVE, MULTI-MEDIA RESOURCE EXCLUSIVELY FOR MILITARY VETERANS
Connecting Vets Every Day,” all of whom are veterans themselves or the spouse or child of a veteran. While most content will air across all three platforms – online, on demand and on-air – some of the programming will be tailored to fit an individual platform according to how audiences consume that content.
Covering a Range of Relevant Topics Online, On-Demand and On-Air, the Platform Gives Vets Easy and Immediate Access to Services,
Solutions and Each Other
NEW YORK, NY, June 5, 2017 – Today, CBS RADIO launched the new “CBS RADIO Presents ConnectingVets.com…Connecting Vets Every Day,” a national, multi-media resource linking military veterans and their families to relevant information, resources, solutions and, most importantly, each other.
The content will be produced and presented by fellow vets who understand the complexity and stages of transitioning from the military ranks back into civilian life. It will cover such important topics as health and fitness, employment and entrepreneurialism, education, finance, and issues particularly impacting female veterans and veterans’ families. Programming is easily accessible online at connectingvets.com and Radio.com, with audio on-demand available at connectingvets.com/podcasts, and programming on-air in Washington, D.C. on local station WJFK 1580(AM). Equally passionate about helping veterans, our sponsorship partners, including Freedom Mortgage and Harley-Davidson Motor Company, will be integrated seamlessly in and around content in non-traditional ways to ensure a user-friendly experience.
With a passion and a dedication to serving our nation’s veterans, the platform is designed to help this very important and growing group cut through the clutter and confusion of what’s available to them to ensure easy access to the benefits and resources they have so rightly earned.
“This new resource is a testament and a dedication to the selfless acts of U.S. veterans and all they do to ensure our freedoms and our very way of life,” said Steve Swenson, Senior Vice President & Market Manager, CBS RADIO Washington, D.C. “We have created a streamlined, solutions-based product that will provide our vets with immediate and easy access to all of their available resources, and to their fellow veterans. We’re confident that together with our partners this dedicated resource will become a go-to source for our nation’s heroes and those around them.”
Included within each morning and afternoon news briefing will be short-form features covering the following areas:
Book Shelf – authors reading excerpts of military or veteran-focused literature
Global Security Watch – updates on current conflict flashpoints and U. S. military involvement
Going Back – following veterans visiting sites of their long-ago battlefields or bases where they were once stationed
Military Life Hacks – veterans share how military skills have made life easier out of uniform
Podcast Roulette – best of podcasts by veterans and conversations with podcast creators
Still Serving – stories about the varied ways veterans contribute to their communities
Stolen Valor – following stories of people attempting to profit by pretending to have served, or by falsely claiming military heroism
The Troubleshooter – finding solutions to problems vets tell us they encounter
VetSports – veterans involved in athletics, including Wounded Warrior competitions
What Goes Around – military history quiz, plus conversations with military historians
Who Knew? – profiling Americans you may not have known served their nation in uniform
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VA backs off budget proposal to cut benefits for disabled, unemployable vets
STARS AND STRIPES
By NIKKI WENTLING
Published: June 14, 2017
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs is backing off a proposal in President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget to cut billions of dollars from a program that provides compensation to the country’s most disabled veterans.
VA Secretary David Shulkin told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Wednesday that he was willing to work with lawmakers to find an alternative to the proposed $3.2 billion cut to the VA Individual Unemployability benefit. The announcement came after the country’s six largest veterans service organizations condemned the proposal.
“As I began to listen to veterans and their concerns, and [veterans service organizations] in particular, it became clear that this would be hurting some veterans and a takeaway from veterans who can’t afford to have those benefits taken away,” Shulkin said. “I’m really concerned about that. This is part of a process. We have to be looking at ways to do things better, but I am not going to support policies that hurt veterans.”
Letter signed by 57 congressmen to Sec. David Shulkin
read more here
Read this letter and then if your member of Congress is on it, thank them! Stephanie Murphy is on it, so a huge public thank you for fighting for our veterans!
The bad news is "rounding down" is still on the table.
Trump’s budget also proposes to reapply a practice at the VA to round down veterans’ cost-of-living adjustments, which would save approximately $20 million in 2018. That savings would also be used for the new Choice program.
UPDATE
Here are some of the names we have to thank!
Congressman Ruben Gallego is the son of Hispanic immigrants, a veteran, and a community leader. He was the first in his family to attend college, graduating from Harvard University with a degree in International Relations. He later joined the Marine Corps, serving in Iraq with the well-known combat unit Lima 3/25.
Congresswoman Dina Titus Dina grew up in the small town of Tifton, Georgia, with her parents, Joe and Betty Titus, and her younger sister, Dr. Rho Hudson, who is a professor of special education and founding faculty member of Nevada State College. Dina is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, holds a Master's degree from the University of Georgia, and earned her Doctorate at Florida State University.
Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez is currently serving her thirteenth term as Representative for New York’s 7th Congressional District. In the 115th Congress, she is the Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee and a senior member of the Financial Services Committee.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, now in her fourteenth term as the Congresswoman for the District of Columbia, is the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. She serves on two committees: the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Congresswoman Jacky Rosen represents Nevada’s third District and was sworn into the 115th Congress after winning in the 2016 election. Rosen has been an active member of Southern Nevada’s community.
As the first member of her family to graduate from college, Rosen worked two jobs and took out student loans to make ends meet. Over summers, Rosen waitressed in Las Vegas and was a proud member of Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
Congressman Tom Suozzi, a CPA and attorney, is the Congressman representing the Third Congressional District in New York. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, House Armed Services Committee, is Vice-Chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus and Co-Chair of the Quiet Skies Caucus.
Congressman John Lewis Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries, John Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. After leaving SNCC in 1966, he continued his commitment to the Civil Rights Movement as Associate Director of the Field Foundation and his participation in the Southern Regional Council's voter registration programs. Lewis went on to become the Director of the Voter Education Project (VEP). Under his leadership, the VEP transformed the nation's political climate by adding nearly four million minorities to the voter rolls.
Stop Tolerating Veterans Being Pushed Back Into Subclass
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 14, 2017
Remember Memorial Day weekend? There was a lot going on especially for the majority of our veterans. There were lots of ceremonies around the country showing how much the American people care at the same time in Washington, news was getting through the crowds gathered that senior veterans were once again being subjected to subclass veteran status.
The budget submitted by POTUS called for senior veterans to take a huge cut in their disability checks. Why? Because they are collecting Social Security?
Ok, then no one bothered to explain to these veterans why "permanent and total" meant nothing. After all, since most disabled veterans were receiving the equivalent of 100% with the "unemployable" part, they did not bother to clog up the system to get their service connected rating upgraded.
After all, they knew about the backlog of claims the younger veterans were facing, much the same way they did when no one cared about them, so they let it go.
Most of these senior veterans were unable to work for a decade, or in many cases, decades, meaning they were not able to pay into Social Security. Ever wonder what that does to the amount of money they pay?
This is a chart from Social Security
This is the Compensation rate from the Department of Veterans Affairs
Most stopped working well before the age of 62 because they couldn't, not because they didn't want to.
Retirement is a dangerous time for them instead of their golden years.
Vietnam Veterans Experience PTSD in Retirement for the First Time
WGCU NPR News
By MICHAEL HIRSH
MAY 30, 2017
"Vets have more time to think. They may have been using work as a way to cope. They were self-medicating by turning into workaholics. Now, that coping mechanism is no longer available, and any number of events can trigger symptoms. Even something as simple as going to an Asian restaurant, even though the vet may have eaten at the restaurant throughout their working life."
It is also clear when you ignore all the "awareness raisers" running around the country talking about veterans committing suicide. Aside from getting the numbers wrong, they totally ignore the fact that 65% of the suicides they know about were veterans over the age of 50!
"Approximately 65 percent of all Veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older."
Now you can no longer ignore any of this when you hear about what this plan to cut their compensation is doing to them! We have created a subclass of veterans.
While they do not want to see anything taken away from younger veterans, imagine what it is like for them to fact this, on top of everything else!
Caregiver stipend is not for them. It is only for younger veterans even though their "caregivers" managed to do it all with absolutely no help or recognition at all.
The charities popping up all over the country and handing disabled veterans free homes, are not doing it for them, nor have they ever done it, yet now these veterans are worried about losing the homes they struggled to get and keep.
They have waited longer, fought harder for all generations to make sure no generation ever left another one behind, but that is exactly what we just did to them. If you think a coin, a lunch saying "Welcome Home" will make up for any of this, you are pretty much out of your mind.
How about you actually do something for them? One more thing to consider is that these veterans have lived for decades after facing combat, yet after these decades, the war they had to fight alone at home all this time is still trying to destroy them!
A PULSE NIGHTCLUB RESPONDER CONFRONTS A NEW CRISIS: PTSD
WMFE
by Abe Aboraya (NPR)
7 hours ago
Gerry Realin says he wishes he had never become a police officer.
Self portrait of Gerry Realin. Time on the paddleboard is one way Realin deals with his post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Gerry Realin (left) and his wife Jessica are working to get first responders workers' compensation benefits in Florida. Image credit: Abe Aboraya
Realin, 37, was part of the hazmat team that responded to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016. He spent four hours taking care of the dead inside the club. Now, triggers like a Sharpie marker or a white sheet yank him out of the moment and back to the nightclub, where they used Sharpies to list the victims that night and white sheets to cover them.
He says small things make him disproportionately upset. He gets lost in memories of the shooting, he says — his young son will call him over and over again. Then, he gets angry that he let himself get trapped in thought, and that spirals into depression.
“Then there’s the moments you can’t control,” Realin says. “The images or flashbacks or nightmares you don’t even know about, and your wife tells you the next day you were screaming or twitching all night.”
Realin was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hasn’t worked since just after the shooting. He worries about his family, he says, “hiding from your kids so that they’re not traumatized by your rage or depression,” which “gives them a sense of insecurity, which isn’t good.”
At least one other police officer has publicly discussed being diagnosed with PTSD after the Pulse shooting, and it’s possible there are more who suffer from it. Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan says there are people who go to war and don’t see what officers saw inside Pulse.
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