Veterans for Common Sense

July 10, 2008 – U.S. war resister Corey Glass is looking at spending “at least a couple more months in Canada” after a federal court granted him a stay of removal.

“I was shocked,” Mr. Glass said shortly after receiving the phone call yesterday afternoon telling him he could stay in Canada.

“I had my bags ready and had moved out of my apartment. So I’m in the process of looking for another apartment,” said Mr. Glass, 25.

Mr. Glass, who came to Canada in 2006, was scheduled to be deported to the United States today.

Geraldine Sadoway, one of the lawyers for Mr. Glass, said the Iraq war veteran who served with the National Guard will remain in Canada while the court reviews and decides on his applications for leave and judicial review.

Meanwhile, Canadian anti-war groups and supporters of American army deserters from the war in Iraq are stepping up their fight to keep war resister Robin Long from being deported to the U.S.

“Our lawyers are applying for a stay of deportation,” Bob Ages, chairman of the Vancouver War Resisters Support Campaign, said yesterday.

Mr. Long, who deserted the U.S. military and fled to Canada to avoid being sent to Iraq, could be deported as early as Monday despite a recent non-binding vote by Parliament allowing U.S. soldiers opposed to the war in Iraq to stay in Canada.

June 26, 2008 – In the wake of the Vietnam War, the American conscience was able to absorb the brutality of combat on the psyche of the returning soldier mostly by compartmentalizing it: the problem was real, and could be dealt with, but as in the embrace of movies like the haunting Deer Hunter, it was slowly accepted that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was an affliction that affected some, but not all veterans of the war. This is clinically true, but I believe new revelations about what was once called “shell shock” in the wake of WWI not only made Americans more sympathetic to Vietnam veterans, but had a transformative effect on a generation. A movement in the mental health field was not only successful in getting PTSD included in its battery of clinical diagnoses, but a massive effort was launched to treat PTSD and to ensure that veterans of future wars returning with symptoms of rage, guilt, paranoia and fear weren’t left to their own devices.

But a medical movement cannot stretch a burst of innovation and dedication into long-term, institutional progress without the commitment of society at large. Compartmentalizing our sympathy and understanding for veterans of one war, does not necessarily translate into learning our lessons for the next one. As mental health and veterans’ advocates have been saying for years, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan face the same demons as their Vietnam predecessors and the data is bearing that out — one in five are returning home with PTSD according to the latest RAND study.

But it is stories like these, that indicate that the American public is due for another rude awakening. Joseph Dwyer was certainly not the only Iraq veteran to die at the hands of a beast his friends and family were not equipped to overwhelm. At age 31, it was pills and inhalants that swiped his last breath, and his mother and ex-wife, sounding like 1979, questioned why there wasn’t more support for the former medic who had been hailed years before as a battlefield hero in this now-famous photo :

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, and the USO (United Service Organizations) today announced The Sesame Street Experience for Military Families: a free traveling tour to military installations across the country. The tour, produced by VEE Corporation, is part of Sesame Workshop’s Talk, Listen, Connect initiative, a military outreach program which launched in 2006. The initiative provides support and offers significant resources for military families with young children experiencing the effects of deployment, multiple deployments or when a parent returns home changed due to a combat related injury. Military families who attend the experience will see a live character performance and receive giveaways and outreach materials from Talk, Listen, Connect and other partners. The tour officially kicks off on July 8 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center 29 Palms in California and will visit 43 installations across the country. The announcement was made by Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop, Edward A. Powell, President and CEO of USO World Headquarters, Leslye A. Arsht, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy and Sesame Street’s Elmo, Rosita and Grover at the Reserve Officers Association (RSO). For up-to-date tour information and schedule, please visit www.sesamestreet.org/tlc.

“The Sesame Street Experience for Military Families brings the Talk, Listen, Connect DVD and materials to life, and directly to the families who face the challenges of military life each day,” said Gary E. Knell, President and CEO, Sesame Workshop. “Our partnership with the USO further extends this initiative, visiting installations across the nation, to help these families bond through emotionally difficult times, by providing an educational and entertaining show and other outreach activities they can share.”

“This is a terrific, ground-breaking new program for military families,” said Edward A. Powell, President and CEO of USO World Headquarters. “Our partnership with Sesame Workshop on Talk, Listen, Connect has been a great success and The Sesame Street Experience is a creative new way to deliver even more morale-boosting services and programs to our troops and their families.”

TOUR SCHEDULE: Base City, State Date(s)
MCAGCC 29 Palms Twentynine Palms, CA Jul 8
Davis-Monthan AFB Tucson, AZ Jul 10
MCB Camp Pendleton Oceanside, CA Jul 13
MCAS Miramar San Diego, CA Jul 14-15
NS San Diego San Diego, CA Jul 18
NB Ventura County Ventura, CA Jul 19
Beale AFB Yuba City, CA Jul 22
McChord AFB Tacoma, WA Jul 24-25
NAS Whidbey Island Oak Harbor ,WA July 26
NB Kitsap  Oak Harbor, WA July 27
Mountain Home AFB Mountain Home, ID July 30
Hill AFB Ogden, UT Aug 1
Ft Carson Colorado Springs, CO Aug 3-4
Ft Bliss El Paso, TX Aug 7-8
Ft Sam Houston San Antonio, TX Aug 10-11
Ft Hood  Killeen, TX Aug 13-14
Ft Sill Lawton, OK Aug 16-17
Ft Riley Junction City, KS Aug 20-21
Offutt AFB Bellevue, NE Aug 23-24
Ft Leonard Wood Fort Leonard Wood, MO Aug 27-28
Ft Campbell Oak Grove, KY Aug 30-31
Keesler AFB Biloxi, MS Sep 3-4
NAS Whiting Field Milton, FL Sep 6-7
NAS Pensacola Pensacola, FL Sep 9
Hurlburt Field & Eglin AFB Fort Walton Beach, FL Sep 10-11
MacDill AFB Tampa, FL Sep 13
NS Mayport Jacksonville, FL Sep 17-18
NAS Jacksonville Jacksonville, FL Sep 19-20
Charleston AFB Charleston, SC Sep 25
MCB Camp Lejeune Jacksonville, NC Sep 27
Ft Bragg Fayetteville, NC Oct 1-2
NS Norfolk Norfolk, VA Oct 4
NAS Oceana Norfolk, VA Oct 5
Ft Eustis Beechmont, VA Oct 7
Ft Stewart Hinesville, GA Oct 10-11
Ft Belvoir Alexandria, VA Oct 14-15
Andrews AFB  Camp Springs, MD Oct 16-17
Ft Dix Fort Dix, NJ Oct 18
Wright-Patterson AFB Dayton, OH Oct 23-24
Pittsburgh JARS Pittsburgh, PA Oct 26
Ft Drum Watertown, NY Oct 28-29
Camp Ripley Little Falls, MN Nov 2

Tour dates subject to change. Please visit www.sesamestreet.org/tlc for the most up-to-date tour information.

Outreach materials for The Sesame Street Experience for Military Families are being provided by: Sesame Workshop, the USO, Military OneSource, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, Military Child Education Coalition, the National Military Family Association and the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. Additionally, Worlds of Discovery (SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Sesame Place) and Beaches Luxury Included® Family Resorts will be offering special offers for military families.

Talk, Listen, Connect: Deployments, Homecomings, Changes, is a bilingual (English/Spanish) multimedia outreach kit that features the Muppets from Sesame Street and consists of DVDs and print materials for children, parents and caregivers; and American Greetings postcards for families to stay connected. Sesame Workshop has produced and is distributing 500,000 kits at no cost to individual families, schools, child care programs, family support programs, hospitals, rehabilitation centers and other organizations serving the needs of military families. The kits are being distributed with the help of Military OneSource, the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH), the USO, the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) and other partners. Special emphasis of distribution is on reaching families of the National Guard and Reserves. The kit materials are available online at www.sesamestreet.org/tlc, where streaming video is being provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, allowing families everywhere to view the videos and download the information.

July 10, 2008, Washington, DC – The Pentagon’s oversight of Houston-based KBR’s work in Iraq and Afghanistan has been “irregular and highly out of the ordinary,” a former Army contracting official told Senate Democrats Wednesday.

Charles Smith, the former chief of the Army Field Support Command with responsibility for overseeing KBR’s massive contract with the Army, contends he was forced out of his job in 2004 for objecting to the Pentagon’s treatment of KBR.

“The interest of a corporation, KBR, not the interests of American soldiers or American taxpayers, seemed to be paramount,” Smith told the Democratic Policy Committee, a Democrats-only panel.

Dan Carlson, a spokesman for the Army Sustainment Command, acknowledged that Smith was reassigned within the command. Smith later retired.

Carlson said Smith’s allegations are “under investigation by appropriate authorities within the Army.”

KBR, the largest military contractor operating in Iraq, builds bases, serves meals and provides a host of other support services for U.S. troops. To date, the company has been paid nearly $26 billion for its work under the contract, Army officials say.

During his tenure, Smith said, he saw KBR submit more than $1 billion in billings to the government that lacked the necessary documentation to merit reimbursement.

KBR had come under particular criticism for its bills for providing meals at base dining halls. The Pentagon’s own auditors, the Defense Contract Audit Agency, objected to $200 million worth of billings, Smith said. But rather than pursue the issue, the Army agreed to change the contract, effectively barring the government from going after that money.

“It was at least a $200 million relief for KBR,” Smith said.

KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne, in a prepared statement, said the company “remains committed to providing high-quality service to our customer and conducting our business with ethics and integrity.

“The company in no way condones or tolerates anything to the contrary. When questions have been raised about our work, we have fully cooperated with the government in providing information requested of us. We remain committed to finding quick resolution to issues when they arise.”

Smith argued that rather than tighten control over the contract when billing issues arose, Army officials waived rules that would have allowed the government to withhold 15 percent of expected reimbursements until KBR provided the necessary documentation.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Democratic Policy Committee chairman, noted what he called “a concerted effort in the Pentagon to award huge contracts to certain companies and to protect it at all costs.”

Smith said the Pentagon essentially “outsourced” oversight of the contract to a firm called RCI, later acquired by Virginia-based Serco.

Serco spokesman Steve McCarney said the firm does not oversee any contractor.

“We simply provide independent economic cost analysis to our client, which is the U.S. Army,” McCarney said.

Carlson, the Army Sustainment Command spokesman, pointed to improvements in recent years, including deploying contracting officers overseas, establishing a requirement review process and improving contractor business systems to better meet the standards of the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

Underlying discussion of KBR’s treatment by the Army was apparent concern among at least some at the Pentagon that the company would, if pushed too far, withdraw from Iraq. That would have dealt a huge blow to a war effort heavily dependent on the work of private contractors.

Smith discounted that notion, saying KBR would not risk its corporate reputation — and its business as a military contractor — by deserting the troops in the field.

After the hearing, Smith said that while he oversaw KBR’s contract, he occasionally heard from midlevel KBR officials complaining about cash flow and warning that the company might fail to complete tasks assigned under the contract. These calls, however, invariably were followed by assurances from higher-level managers of the company’s commitment to the contract, Smith said.

July 9, 2008 – Full-tuition educational benefits included in a new veterans’ program signed into law on June 30 will not take effect until Aug. 1, 2009, unless Congress approves a change in the new law.

There will be a 20 percent increase, effective this Aug. 1, in Montgomery GI Bill benefits for active-duty veterans and veterans who have served two or more years of active duty, raising the maximum benefit to $1,321 for a full-time student who has three or more years of active service, under terms of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008.

Full tuition benefits, plus stipends for living expenses and books, will not take effect under the law until Aug. 1, 2009, despite earlier claims by aides to the bill’s chief sponsor that those payments would be retroactive to when the bill is signed.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Webb, D.Va., chief sponsor of the new benefits package, said the fact that the benefits are not retroactive came as a surprise; the final bill passed by Congress omitted crucial paragraphs of Webb’s legislation.

The spokeswoman, Kimberly Hunter, said a technical correction bill fixing other problems with the bill could include language that would restore the retroactive benefits Webb wanted in the bill.

That is not the only thing Webb’s staff promised that ended up being wrong.

People who previously enrolled in the Montgomery GI Bill program must continue to make their $100 monthly installments until they have fully paid the $1,200 contribution required to participate — even though the post-9/11 benefits program will be completely free.

Pentagon officials said ending contributions is not allowed under either the new or previous law, and that enrollments in the Montgomery GI Bill continue because there are some types of post-service education, including on-the-job and vocational training, that are not covered by the new program. Military officials are working on a briefing for new recruits that will explain the differences between the old and new veterans’ benefits programs. It will recommend that troops continue to enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill program if there is any chance they might need non-traditional education.

The disappointing news about the lack of retroactive benefits and continued enrollment charges came from the departments Veterans Affairs and Defense, who have staffs poring over the details of what is now Public Law 110-252 to determine how it will be implemented.

Defense and VA aides said they are working with congressional staff to implement the benefits plan that was passed by Congress and to suggest changes when errors were made.

July 8, 2008 – Department of Veterans Affairs doctors began raising red flags last year about whether the smoking-cessation drug Chantix was causing severe psychotic episodes among veterans, prompting a quiet investigation last fall but no warning for many months to the 32,000 retired service members prescribed the medication, according to internal agency documents reviewed by The Washington Times.

“Early reports” from doctors at VA medical centers were flowing in throughout 2007, well before the U.S. government and drug maker Pfizer Inc. issued public warnings late last year and earlier this year that Chantix had been linked to psychotic behavior, hallucinations and suicides, VA officials said.

By late November, VA officials began collecting data showing nearly one out of every 1,000 veterans taking the drug had been hospitalized for severe psychosis, a rate noticeably higher than for veterans trying to stop smoking with alternative treatments like nicotine replacement, the documents show.

VA officials told The Times that they decided to proceed with their normal process of studying their data for several months to determine whether the trend was “statistically significant” and did not issue immediate warnings.

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In the interim, more veterans were prescribed the drug, including some suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who were enrolled in a medical experiment in which VA officials acknowledged Monday that the number of severe side affects averaged nearly one problem for every two veterans taking Chantix. VA officials said they wished in retrospect that their warnings had been issued sooner and they are examining how to improve their communications process.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee is set to investigate the VA’s conduct in prescribing Chantix at hearings Wednesday, and the committee’s chairman said Monday that the inaction detailed in the documents obtained by The Times raised serious, new questions about whether the agency cared enough about the veterans it treats.

“When questioned, the VA immediately wants to defend ‘the process,'” said Rep. Bob Filner, California Democrat. “When is the VA going to understand that it is not about the process, but about the veteran? Veterans don´t want to hear the VA defend its process. It´s time for the VA to defend our veterans, our heroes.”

Doctors treating veterans were reporting last year into a medical surveillance database maintained by the VA numerous instances in which the patients were taking Chantix when they were hospitalized for serious psychotic episodes. By October, the VA changed its tracking of Chantix side effects to include psychosis because of the concerns raised by doctors. A month later, the VA began a formal review that took nearly four months to complete, gleaning from the database all reports of psychotic behavior that required hospitalization.

That review found that among 27 patients taking Chantix who were admitted to VA hospitals for psychiatric problems since the drug was approved for the market in 2006, 11 had attempted suicide, one attempted homicide, nine had suicidal thoughts, and six were suffering from hallucinations, according to an internal report completed on March 18.

Results “show a greater crude rate of severe psychosis with varenicline compared to nicotine or nicotine/bupropion but do not reach statistical significance,” the report concluded. “These data show a signal for potential increased psychosis and warrant further examination to determine actual incidence and potential causality compared to control.”

The study was never released to the public, but VA officials agreed to let The Times review it.

The VA internal analysis examined more than 100 hospitalizations for psychiatric episodes of VA patients who had just begun trying to quit smoking by taking either varenicline (Chantix), nicotine-replacement therapy, or nicotine-replacement therapy along with bupropion. It looked back at the time period between September 2006 and September 2007.

VA officials noted that patients in the other groups also were admitted to hospitals for similar episodes, including 73 veterans who were trying the nicotine-replacement therapy and seven who were trying nicotine-replacement therapy and bupropion.

But the rates of these events were highest among the Chantix group – 9.8 hospitalizations per 10,000 patients. For instance, veterans taking nicotine replacement were suffering psychotic episodes requiring hospitalizations at a lesser of rate 6.8 per 10,000 patients.

The report also found that nearly all of the patients in each of the three groups who were admitted to hospitals with psychiatric problems had histories of psychiatric problems, and more than half in each group had histories of some sorts of suicidal behaviors.

By the time the review was completed in March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Pfizer already had issued public warnings about Chantix.

Even then, VA officials conducting the review didn’t urge that all veterans taking the medicine under the VA’s care get warning letters. Instead, the review recommended that the FDA conduct a full epidemiological study of the drug at a cost of $250,000.

Virginia Torrise, VA’s deputy chief consultant of Pharmacy Benefits Management, said agency officials were not able in their informal review “to actually correlate and say there was a causal effect” between any of the drugs or nicotine treatments and the psychiatric events and that is why they recommended a formal FDA study.

The VA began sending warning letters to all 32,000 veterans who have taken Chantix in late spring, nearly three months after the internal review was completed. The first letters were sent on May 30 and told veterans that they should be careful operating heavy machinery if they are taking Chantix, repeating a warning just days earlier from the Federal Aviation Administration when it banned pilots from taking the drug.

Updated guidelines for prescribing Chantix were posted on the VA Web site June 18, and the agency then sent out letters to all veterans taking the drug to specifically warn them that suicidal tendencies were a possible side effect.

Those actions were prompted by a joint investigative report by The Times and ABC News on June 17 that documented how the VA failed to warn more than 200 veterans suffering from PTSD who where participating in a smoking-cessation study of Chantix’s possible side effects. During the delay, one of the Iraq war veterans, former Army sharpshooter James Elliott, in that study suffered a psychotic episode so severe that it led to a near lethal confrontation with police, The Times reported.

The VA initially reported that 143 veterans had taken Chantix in conjunction with the smoking-cessation study, and about two dozen had suffered some side effects. But on Monday, VA officials significantly raised those numbers, acknowledging that at least 241 veterans in the study had taken Chantix as of June 25, and that 114 serious adverse events were reported by 75 of those participants. Among the side effects, 22 involved psychiatric events.

The number of veterans now taking Chantix in that study has dropped to 40, officials said.

The description of the study’s effort provided to The Times said that when the FDA approved Chantix, “the drug had not been studied in VA patients or patients with mental health conditions.”

“VA received early reports of … adverse drug reactions from various medical centers which signaled to VA the need for a pharmacovigilance effort that added psychosis to the events being tracked and ultimately analyzed and placed into a report,” the VA said.

Wednesday’s congressional hearing will review the VA process for handling human research subjects, the agency’s responsibility to respond to the FDA´s advisories, and the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and researchers. Witnesses include VA Secretary James B. Peake; Dr. John D. Daigh, assistant inspector general; Mr. Elliott; and Lt. Col Roger Charles, editor of DefenseWatch.

Lawmakers are concerned because the VA’s alerts about Chantix side effects lagged those of the drug maker and the FDA.

For instance, Pfizer updated its Chantix label in January to warn of possible “serious neuropsychiatric symptoms, including changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior.”

The FDA first issued a notice about possible additional side effects of Chantix in November and issued a health alert on Feb. 1, warning that Chantix could result in changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide.

July 2, 2008 – There has been much talk of late about the cost of the Iraq War, due in no small part to the huge estimates postulated by Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Together with his colleague Linda Bilmes, Stiglitz asserts with confidence that the cost of the Iraq War will exceed $3 trillion, prompting sound-bite-prone journalists to dub Iraq “the trillion dollar war.” Of course, these estimates are for costs extending through 2017. In fact, our Iraq adventure will cost far less on the margin, since the military will not disappear even if the war in Iraq does. Whether or not we retain forces in Iraq, they will have to be equipped, housed and trained somewhere. Attributing those costs to the Iraq War is disingenuous. What is real are the hidden “opportunity costs” we’ve already incurred.

The cost of the decision to overthrow the Baathist government of Iraq in 2003 was one number. The cost of the decision to occupy the nation of Iraq until they come up with a government that can hold the country together and pass muster with America’s goal of installing a human-rights-respecting democracy is a larger number.

But economists insist that the true cost of any decision includes the opportunity cost of events that were precluded by the decision. In the case of invading and occupying Iraq, that is a very large number.

Had the United States not invaded and occupied Iraq, the world would almost certainly have enacted the Doha round of trade liberalization that would have ended most agricultural subsidies. Absent Iraq, Germany would have pressured France to abandon their farm subsidies. But because of Iraq, Germany and France linked arms against America, and trade liberalization was frozen.

The World Bank has estimated that enacting Doha would increase world GDP by $300 billion by 2015. Instead, Iraq means millions of farmers in the third world have lost income and opportunity. How many idle hands did this create? And what will those idle hands do in the future?

Another opportunity cost surfaced in March of 2003, when the American government announced that the Iraq War effort would cost $74.7 billion more than previously thought. The Senate reacted by scaling back the 2003 tax cut from a projected $726 billion over ten years to just $350 billion. Specifically, the double taxation of corporate dividends that was to be reduced to zero from 35 percent was only cut to 15 percent.

But the American taxpayer did not simply lose $350 billion in lower taxes. The stock market increased by more than $5 trillion in response to the scaled-back tax cut of 2003. Had the entire tax cut been enacted and taxation on dividends reduced to zero, the value of stocks would have increased another $2 or $3 trillion. That is another opportunity cost of the war.

The greatest opportunity cost of the Iraq War, though, flows from its impact on the 2004 and 2006 elections. Absent the Iraq War, Bush was predicted to win the 2004 election with 58 percent of the vote. Yet, he limped across the finish line with 51 percent. In 2006, voter unhappiness with Iraq was targeted at House and Senate candidates, and the GOP lost thirty House seats and six senators.

This means that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will not be extended (unless the 2008 and 2010 elections reverse control of Congress), and taxes will automatically increase an estimated $2 trillion over the next decade. The gains in the stock market of more than $5 trillion will also evaporate once capital-gains taxes and dividend taxation jump back up to pre-2003 rates. A Democratic Congress has already signaled hundreds of billions in new domestic spending on farm subsidies and welfare. A Democratic Congress may change labor laws, end efforts at tort reform and further constrict trade-liberalization efforts.

And as the presidential campaign season carries on, and as Iraq remains central to the debate, other important drains on our budget are being ignored. Our operations outside of Iraq are far more costly than most people realize, and could get more costly still if the presidential candidates actually keep their campaign promises. Current operations in Afghanistan are costing about $2 billion a month, and there is widespread agreement that more forces are required to ensure that the country does not once again fall under the rule of the resurgent Taliban. General Dan McNeill, outgoing commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, said that he requires two combat brigades and a training brigade to pacify the country. That translates into ten thousand troops, not including combat-support and service-support forces. Neither of the candidates has challenged this estimate. Indeed, Obama (D-IL) himself has underscored the need for more troops in Afghanistan to fight what he calls the “real” focus of the war on terror.

Senator Obama also calls for more forces operating in Pakistan so that Osama bin Laden can at long last be captured. That commitment is open-ended, however. And it is not at all clear how the tribes of Waziristan will react to the presence of large numbers of American troops, if that is what it ultimately takes to capture the terrorist leader.

More generally, the Democractic candidate has not talked about cutting back on the military. He even recognizes that this election year is not like 1968—the military is far more popular than he is. Nominally, at least, the Democrats are committed to equipping forces adequately, which implies, at a minimum, a willingness to provide the army with the necessary dollars to “reset,” i.e., rebuild the tank, truck and helicopter forces that have been worn down in Iraq. The Government Accountability Office estimates that an army reset will cost about $190 billion through 2013; neither candidate has flinched at that number.

More tellingly, however, Obama supports an increase in the size of the army and Marine Corps force levels, although such increases will bring with them ancillary costs that he tends not to discuss. These are military personnel costs, benefits for the troops that the Democrats in particular have vocally supported. Thanks to the exertions of Democrats on the Hill, the package of benefits available to the military has grown like Topsy. In particular, Democrats continue to press both for expanding health benefits—which this year will consume $12 billion in defense dollars—and extending more and more of those benefits to the reserve forces.

Personnel expenditures may well be the most-important cost drivers in the defense budget. They have begun to crowd out other critical military needs, most notably the acquisition accounts. How Obama, who traditionally supports trimming the defense budget, can square his support for expanding personnel programs, force-level increases, more deployments to Afghanistan and an army reset is a question he has not addressed.

The costs do not end there. Though he advocates talking to Iran, Obama also calls for a strong military response to Tehran, if necessary.

And Iraq, thought to be a Democratic “bill payer” because everyone assumes a Democratic win goes hand in hand with a drawdown and pullout, is likely to prove far less lucrative a source than has been supposed. Other budget needs will not necessarily be covered by freed-up resources. Senator Obama himself has pledged to withdraw combat troops from Iraq, but a promise without a context means little. And even he has not spoken of withdrawing trainers and various support units. Merely to protect the country’s borders and train Iraqi forces will require at least fifty to seventy thousand troops, at a cost of tens of billions annually. Security and economic assistance could add further billions to the bottom line.

The “war on terror” will continue to have costs. Senator McCain’s (R-AZ) plans, too, carry a heavy price tag. He makes no bones about the need to remain in Iraq, both to complete combat operations and to sustain a stable polity there. He has taken a tough line on Iran and on North Korea. He has not challenged General McNeill’s requirements for Afghanistan or the army’s reset needs.

On the other hand, he has a long and honorable record of seeking and enforcing controls on runaway contract costs. More generally, he has long crusaded against “waste, fraud and abuse” in the Pentagon and did indeed spur the investigation that led to the jailing of air-force bureaucrats and two senior officials at Boeing as a result of the tanker-lease scandal. In addition, unlike leading Democrats, and despite his stellar military record, he has not been an outspoken advocate of mindlessly piling on personnel benefits on top of personnel benefits.

Nevertheless, McCain is unlikely to find savings to offset the cost implications of the policies he advocates. He too will have to contemplate an increased defense budget, though it is unlikely to cause him the same degree of discomfort it would generate for a Democratic president. Still, an annual budget in excess of three-quarters of a trillion dollars is no small matter, and a McCain administration will have to work hard to defend it.

Counting the money spent in the past several federal budgets is easy. The true cost of the Iraq decision includes what might have been if the president and Congress had been able to focus on other national priorities over the past five years. And the question now needs to be asked: what will be our new opportunity costs?

July 9, 2008 – Former U.S. soldiers who were disabled fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and live far from government hospitals and rehabilitation centers pay more for health care than other veterans, a government report found.

To address this “inequity,” Congress should pass legislation waiving the requirement for disabled soldiers to pay premiums to enroll in the federal Medicare program, the report said. Under existing rules, the injured soldiers must pay $1,157 a year for their premiums until they turn 65, according to the report.

Disabled veterans who don’t live near clinics and hospitals operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Defense Department can use Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, or purchase private health insurance. Either way, they pay more, said the report released yesterday by inspectors general of the two departments.

The report is one of several government reviews triggered by a series of articles in the Washington Post describing the poor quality of care for wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. The investigators focused their recommendations on three issues not covered by other reports.

The report also urged the Defense Department to create an office to ensure that injured soldiers have a “seamless transition” as they transfer out of the military health care system and into the system operated by the VA.

In a third recommendation, the inspectors general urged the VA to propose legislation in Congress that would provide grants to help disabled veterans remodel their homes for wheelchair ramps, accessible showers and other needed amenities.

June 24, 2008 – On a warm day last summer, new father and Marine Corps Capt. John Jacobs got an e-mail from a buddy he’d served with in Iraq.

“I do need help in get(ting) out of home for awhile, or maybe for good,” the message read. “All I need is moving my family in any place that might be safer than where we live now.”

Jacobs, a 34-year-old Santa Cruz native who was deployed twice during the war, knew without hesitation he had to help his brother in arms.

He had to rescue his Iraqi translator, Haitham, a man he calls “Falcon.”

“He believed in our cause,” Jacobs said. “He was willing to stand beside us and face the same danger that we were facing. He rode around in Humvees waiting to get blown up like everyone else.”

Nearly a year later, Haitham, his wife, Jameela, and their two young children are about to arrive in San Jose – thanks to the efforts of Jacobs and his wife, Veronica, to bring the Iraqi family to safety.

The 34-year-old Haitham is one of the estimated 7,000 Iraqis who have served as translators for the American military during the war. While the job is a way for educated Iraqis to help rebuild their country, it also comes with many risks. Translators are seen as traitors among insurgents and supporters of the old regime.

The interpreters and their families are often targeted for retaliation, Jacobs said. Haitham, who served with Jacobs in the Third Battalion, First Marines in Al-Hadithah during 2005 and 2006, goes only by his first name for security reasons.
And despite the practice of adopting code names – such as “Falcon” – to further protect their identities, some secrets get out. Haitham’s father was kidnapped in 2005 and hasn’t been seen since.

After receiving Haitham’s plea, Jacobs and his wife launched Operation Falcon, a Web site aimed at bringing the family to America and raising awareness of the plight of other Iraqi translators. Jacobs is seeking donations of cash, gift cards and household goods.

He recently lined up an apartment for the family, who will arrive July 4. The Jacobses have a garage full of donated furniture ready to be moved in.

During two stints in Iraq, Jacobs worked with dozens of translators. But he says there was something special about Falcon.

A graduate of the University of Technology in Baghdad with a degree in electrical engineering, he spoke English well and seemed smarter than the other translators, Jacobs said. And he cared.

When told that Veronica Jacobs was expecting a baby girl, “he bought gifts for my daughter – baby clothes, a rattler, that kind of stuff,” Jacobs said. “It meant a great deal to me. It showed me that he listened and that he paid attention.”

In response, Jacobs’ wife sent coloring books and markers to Haitham’s children, who are 7 and 3.

“He was just a good guy,” said Jacobs, the principal of the private Challenger School in San Jose.

The Marine is also involved with a documentary project. With footage of the two families in Iraq and San Jose, filmmaker Tim O’Hara has created a 16-minute video that highlights the bond between the two – and Jacobs’ efforts to save his friend.

“I really do think that what he is doing is a great thing,” O’Hara said. “He sees helping Falcon as an extension of his service.”

Ironically, the lives of the Marine and the translator soon will switch: Jacobs has been deployed back to Iraq next spring.

It will be the first time he’ll be away from his children, 2-year-old Mae and 9-month-old Ellie.

“It will be tough,” he said simply.

While he’s gone, Jacobs hopes to keep Operation Falcon alive and rescue more interpreters like Haitham.