27 August 2024

POLITICO | Ukraine to present Biden admin with targets it could hit in Russia, given the chance
Ukrainian officials are preparing to present a list of long-range targets in Russia to top U.S. national security officials that they think Kyiv’s military can hit if Washington were to lift its restrictions on U.S. weapons.

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NBC News | Government has clawed back more than $2.5B given to veterans to leave the military, data shows

The Department of Veterans Affairs has clawed back billions of dollars that countless veterans were given as incentive to leave the military, including when it needed to downsize, according to new data obtained by NBC News.

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Associated Press | Ukraine counts on new long-range weapon to bypass Western restrictions and hit deep into Russia

Ukraine says it has a new long-range weapon to strike deep into Russia without asking permission from allies — a homegrown combination of missile and drone that the defense minister vowed Monday would provide “answers” to a wave of Russian bombings.

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Reuters | Russian attacks on Ukraine kill five in second day of major strikes, Kyiv says

Russia launched missile and drone attacks targeting scores of Ukrainian regions and killing at least five people, officials said on Tuesday, a day after Moscow's biggest air attack of the war on its neighbour.

Washington Post | Three years after Kabul’s fall, veterans still helping allies left behind
As Sean Halpin gears up every morning for the product marketing management he does from his Midlothian, Va., home, he also starts checking in with the 176 Afghan linguists and family members he tracks via a spreadsheet that he has carefully maintained for nearly three years.

Newsweek | Hamas Says US Trying to 'Sell Illusions' on Gaza Ceasefire Talks
A senior Hamas official has accused U.S. President Joe Biden's administration of deliberately misrepresenting the level of progress achieved in ongoing negotiations toward a ceasefire in Gaza in order to put pressure on the Palestinian group.

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Financial Times | Ukraine has crossed Moscow’s and Washington’s red lines

Zelenskyy is prepared to ignore Russia’s nuclear threats. But the Biden administration is still wary of escalating the war.

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Military Times | Trump promises to launch Space National Guard if elected

Former President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to create a Space National Guard if he is elected commander-in-chief again in November, calling it a critical step in ensuring that America continues to strengthen its military defenses in space.

Stars & Stripes | Roosevelt deployment extended in Middle East, US to keep 2 carrier strike groups in the region

The Middle East deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has been extended following a weekend of Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah trading heavy fire, the Pentagon said Monday.

Foreign Affairs | America’s Missed Chance in Afghanistan
For many Americans, the dominant image of the United States’ 20-year war in Afghanistan came at the very end: terrified Afghans storming the Kabul airport, clinging to departing planes, some falling to their deaths, desperately trying to flee the country as Taliban insurgents closed in on the capital.

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Los Angeles Times | Don’t believe Trump’s politicking about Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal
Three years ago, the U.S. military was at Kabul’s international airport frantically organizing evacuation flights out of Afghanistan as the Taliban returned to power in the capital city after a 20-year hiatus. The evacuation mission was rushed, with overwhelmed U.S. forces working to get as many Afghans out of the country as possible. The last U.S. military plane flew out of the airport on Aug. 31, ending a two-decade-long military mission, the longest in U.S. history.

Austin American-Statesman | On the anniversary of US withdrawal in Afghanistan, President Biden made the right call
As The Taliban celebrate their third anniversary of returning to power in Kabul, Afghanistan, Republicans have been quick to tie vice president and democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to America’s tragedy-marred withdrawal from that city in August 2021.

CVA continues to be out in the media discussing escalations abroad.

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Jason Beardsley joined Ana Cabrera’s show on MSNBC yesterday to discuss what needs to happen to protect the American troops currently deployed in the region. Watch Jason’s full interview here.

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Last week, CVA hosted a series of town hall events in Montana to discuss VA accountability and veterans’ health care reform.

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The VA MISSION Act, which has been law since 2018, expanded veterans’ access to community care. This means veterans can use their VA health benefits to access care from a network of community providers if VA-run facilities can’t offer appointments quickly enough or near enough to where veterans live. This is especially critical to veterans seeking mental health care.

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Despite the MISSION Act becoming a law, the VA has actively undermined community care as an option for veterans, which it sees as a threat to its system, rather than a partner for getting veterans the care they need. The VA prefers that veterans stay trapped in the VA’s broken bureaucratic system to justify their bloated budget, which has quintupled in the past twenty years, even as our nation’s veteran population has steadily declined.

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At the town hall events, Chris Enget, Strategic Director for CVA in Montana, a combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient, shared the struggles he faced as a veteran navigating the VA health care system. His experience navigating the VA is unfortunately typical for many veterans, facing delays in care, months of waiting for urgently needed appointments, and worse.

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His story is a compelling call to action for improved veterans' health care services.