Military
and Veterans News
Compiled by
Samoa News Staff
BUSH DETAILS
$70 BILLION WAR FUNDING REQUEST FOR 2009
WASHINGTON (AP)
- President Bush sent lawmakers a $70 billion request Friday
to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring,
which would give the next president breathing room to make his
or her own war policy.
Friday's request
fills in the details of the $70 billion placeholder that the
White House asked for when it sent its budget to Congress in
February. The money is for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.
Congressional
analysts say Bush's request would bring the total spending since
Sept. 11, 2001, to fight terrorism and conduct the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan to $875 billion.
The request comes
as Democrats on Capitol Hill are struggling to move Bush's pending
$108 billion request for the current year. Democratic leaders
say they're likely to add the $70 billion for next year to that
measure, which would allow them to avoid a politically painful
vote on war funding in the heat of campaigning for the November
elections.
Anti-war Democrats
are frustrated at their inability to force the president to scale
back war operations and hate to vote to keep the Iraq war going.
At the same time, Bush has promised to veto the war funding bill
if Democrats add money for domestic programs and present him
with a bill over his request.
The bulk of the
new money, $45 billion, would fund U.S. combat operations, but
there's also $3 billion to deal with roadside bombs and $2 billion
to cope with rising fuel costs.
According to
the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, Congress has
provided $526 billion for the Iraq war alone, with the two pending
requests coming on top of that. Operations in Afghanistan have
cost $140 billion.
Friday's request
also contains $770 million in additional food aid and other assistance
to try to ease the global food crisis. There's also $2.6 billion
to airlift new mine-resistant vehicles into the war zone and
maintain them there.
The Afghan military
would receive $3.7 billion for counterinsurgency efforts; the
Iraqi military would get $2 billion for the same purpose.
Bush also asked
for $1.7 billion for infrastructure, social programs and economic
development initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan under a programs
designed to win the support of local populations.
Pakistan, a key
ally in fighting terrorism, would receive $193 million in aid.
PENTAGON PLANS
NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGN
WASHINGTON (AP)
- Senior military officers could be talking about their emotional
struggles on YouTube and MySpace this year, in a Pentagon campaign
to urge troops into counseling for wartime mental problems.
Defense Secretary
Robert Gates announced Thursday that getting therapy "is
not going to count against" troops when they apply for national
security clearances.
A new policy
on security clearances and the idea of a planned national awareness
campaign on mental illness are efforts by a Defense Department
struggling to care for the many thousands of troops coming home
from Iraq and Afghanistan with emotional wounds.
Part of the problem
is changing a military culture that equates such problems with
weakness and so stigmatizes those getting treatment.
"It's time
for leaders of all stripes to step forward and lead by example,
when it comes to mental health issues," Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told a Pentagon press
conference.
"You can't
expect a private or a specialist to be willing to seek counseling
when his or her captain or colonel or general won't do it,"
he said.
"I've talked
with a number of (senior leaders) already and we already have
folks who are standing up and ready to come forward and tell
their story," said Col. Lorree Sutton, an Army psychiatrist
who heads a new center for psychological health and post-traumatic
stress disorder, or PTSD.
"We can
talk about how important it is," she said. "Ultimately,
troops and families - they want to see leaders walking that talk."
AIR FORCE
SUSPENDS TRAINING JET FOLLOWING 2ND FATAL CRASH
WICHITA FALLS,
Texas (AP) - The Air Force grounded all T-38C training jets on
Thursday, following the second fatal crash involving the aircraft
in eight days, the military said.
Two pilots died
when their high-altitude, supersonic plane went down during a
routine training mission, according a statement from Sheppard
Air Force Base.
The two-seat
plane was assigned to the 80th Flying Training Wing, a multinational
organization that produces future combat pilots for NATO. The
names of the airmen were not immediately released.
The crash follows
the deaths of two pilots whose training jet crashed April 23
at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi.
"At this
point we have no indication that there was any tie between the
two," said Capt. John Severns, Chief of Media Relations
for Air Education Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base
near San Antonio.
US MILITARY
DEATHS IN IRAQ AT 4,065
As of Friday,
May 2, 2008, at least 4,065 members of the U.S. military have
died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according
to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military
civilians. At least 3,315 died as a result of hostile action,
according to the military's numbers.
The AP count
is two lower than the Defense Department's tally, last updated
Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military
has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21;
Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia,
four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania,
two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one
death each.
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