Proposed changes to the VA
Newsletter update: sometime next week I’ll announce changes to the format, content, and frequency of War, U.S.A. Readership has grown and I want to double-down on the promise of covering the long reach of American conflict. Stay tuned. And endless thanks to you for your readership and your support.
Rep. Brian Mast (Republican-Florida) served in Afghanistan. He is a double amputee. This week he introduced legislation that would see senior military officers take charge of the 152 medical centers the Department of Veterans Affairs operates nationwide.
“At the end of the day, no one is better prepared to oversee veteran care than those who will one day be veterans themselves. That’s what this bill is all about,” Mast said in a statement.
Mast introduced two other bills aimed at shaping the VA. It was a busy week there, with VA Secretary Denis McDonough testifying on Wednesday that an overhaul to the department’s electronic health record system was imminent. (Issues plaguing the system included veterans receiving duplicate medications by mail.) But Mast’s VA medical centers bill drew the most ire.
One source told me it was an idea unlikely to find support: the military has little stake in veterans’ affairs once those servicemembers become useless to active or reserve combat.
In other news . . .
Top Brass (Best Of)
News & Off-News
The Washington Post published a searing article on the atmosphere of hostility against women at Virginia Military Institute. The article notes that there is an expectation of backlash from male cadets if a woman reports being groped or raped. “They would think I am trying to get him in trouble. They’d say, ‘Hey, think about this guy’s commission, and the life you’re about to ruin.’ But what about me? I was assaulted, and I’m dealing with the trauma,” one cadet told the Post. The Tweet below is from 2017, but the essay is worth reading.
Senate Democrats are reintroducing a proposal to require all women to enroll in the Selective Service System. Calls to include women have grown since 2015, when the military opened all combat roles to female service members. Republicans opposed draft legislation in 2016. And in March of last year, a bipartisan commission found increased support for the military draft system's inclusion of women. “Including women in the selective service would double the pool of candidates available to draft, raising the overall quality of the conscripted force and enabling the Nation to better meet its military needs,” according to an amicus brief authored by 10 retired U.S. generals and admirals.
Lastly, someone who was upset about the inaccuracy of a tank depicted in an online video game leaked a classified document to the game’s developers. As far as I can tell, the online tank avatar hasn’t been updated.
Analysis
Transfers alone won’t close Gitmo.
National security is stronger when Congress is involved, argues Sen. Chris Murphy.
Automated testing must become a key part of Biden's cybersecurity network defense.
And besides, can the world avoid war in cyberspace . . . and space?
The Footlocker (Longer Reads)
Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France by Adin Dobkin (July 1 — Little A)
From the publisher: On June 29, 1919, one day after the Treaty of Versailles brought about the end of World War I, nearly seventy cyclists embarked on the thirteenth Tour de France. From Paris, the war-weary men rode down the western coast on a race that would trace the country's border, through seaside towns and mountains to the ghostly western front. Traversing a cratered postwar landscape, the cyclists faced near-impossible odds and the psychological scars of war. Most of the athletes had arrived straight from the front, where so many fellow countrymen had suffered or died. The cyclists' perseverance and tolerance for pain would be tested in a grueling, monthlong competition.
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Quote of the Week:
"He is willing to use his training or experience to organize with the rioters on January 6 ... thereby making their actions more effective, more forceful and more violent."
—Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey, the federal judge who on Tuesday ordered Capitol rioter and ex-Army Ranger Robert Morss to remain in jail before trial, ruling that he was too dangerous to release and slamming him for using his military training to help organize the mob and eventually breach the Capitol, according to CNN.
Police found a notebook in his car with a page titled Step by Step To Create Hometown Militia. The plan included a list of supplies, including an assault rifle, and steps such as "battle drills" and "ambush."
While investigators found six firearms during their raid, the assault rifle mentioned in Morss' notebook remains missing.