What's New
| VCS Adds "VCS on TV" News Clips to Web Site |
Television News Coverage of VCS Advocacy VCS now posts links to television news broadcasts featuring Veterans for Common Sense and our highly successful advocacy efforts on issues you care about. |
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| Disabled Iraq War Veteran with Service Dog Beaten by McDonalds Employee |
October 30, 2009, Brooklyn, New York (Courthouse News Service) - A disabled Army captain who was wounded in Iraq claims McDonald's employees beat him with garbage can lids after he brought his service dog to the restaurant. Luis Montalvan says the attack came as he was photographing the restaurant after he repeatedly complained about the treatment he received there. |
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| Deployment at All Costs: Military Arrests Mom, Sends Child to Protective Serivces |
Soldier mom refuses deployment to care for baby November 16, 2009, Savannah, Georgia (Associated Press) – An Army cook and single mom may face criminal charges after she skipped her deployment flight to Afghanistan because, she said, no one was available to care for her infant son while she was overseas. |
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| Fort Hood Fallout: Camp Lejeune Whistle-Blower Fired |
A psychiatrist who tried to prevent Fort Hood-style violence among Marines about to "lose it" instead loses his job November 16, 2009 (Salon) - Last April, two Marines at Camp Lejeune predicted to a psychiatrist that some Marine back from war was going to "lose it." Concerned, the psychiatrist asked what that meant. One of the Marines responded, "One of these guys is liable to come back with a loaded weapon and open fire." |
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| New York Times Profiles VA and Secretary Shinseki |
No Longer a Soldier, Shinseki Has a New Mission November 11, 2009 (New York Times) - It was a sad homecoming of sorts. On Tuesday, Eric Shinseki, the secretary of veterans affairs, returned to Fort Hood, Tex., where he was a division commander in the mid-1990s, to pay tribute to two veterans affairs employees who died in the shootings there last week. |
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Iraq Deaths Reach 13-Month High
Written by BBC
Friday, 04 September 2009 09:39
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September 1, 2009 - An upsurge in violence in Iraq in the month of August 2009 has led to the highest number of deaths from violence in the country for more than a year.
Figures compiled by the Iraqi government show that 393 civilians were killed during August. Sixty police officers and soldiers also died in attacks. But the violence is well below the worst levels of 2006 and 2007 when more than 2,000 Iraqi civilians were being killed on average every month. Most of last month's violence was in Baghdad, with two massive truck bombings at Iraqi ministries claiming more than a 100 lives. More than 1,500 civilians were wounded in bombings, shootings and mortar attacks in August. Correspondents say the attacks in Iraq raise concerns about the ability of the authorities to ensure security two months after taking over responsibility from the multilateral US-led forces for protecting urban areas. US President Barack Obama has vowed to withdraw all American combat troops from the country by the end of August 2010, ahead of a complete military pullout by the end of 2011. While the situation may have improved in Iraq, the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says civilian casualties are still happening at twice the rate of those in the war in Afghanistan.
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