05 September 2024

Reuters | Putin says Ukraine's Kursk incursion has failed to slow Russia's eastern advance

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Ukraine's incursion into the Russian region of Kursk had failed to slow Russia's own advance in eastern Ukraine and had weakened Kyiv's defences along the frontline in a boost to Moscow.

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The Hill | US troops attacked in Turkey
The incident prompted immediate backlash in Washington as U.S. officials decried the attack on American troops.

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NPR | 7 U.S. troops hurt in Iraq raid targeting Islamic State group militants that killed 15

The United States military and Iraq launched a joint raid targeting suspected Islamic State group militants in the country's western desert that killed at least 15 people and saw seven American troops hurt, officials said Saturday.

Military.com | House Republicans Subpoena Secretary Blinken for Testimony on US Withdrawal from Afghanistan

House Republicans have issued a subpoena demanding testimony from Secretary of State Antony Blinken as they wrap up a sprawling yearslong investigation into the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

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POLITICO | Zelenskyy suffers huge backlash as reshuffle triggers power-grab accusations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy triggered blowback in Kyiv on Wednesday as the parliament began the biggest reshuffle of government roles since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Newsweek | Turkey's Role in NATO Comes Under Scrutiny
Turkey's request to join two international organizations headed by Russia and China has added to questions about its role in NATO with which it has clashed in recent years.

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New York Times | At Arlington, Trump Returns to the Politics of the ‘Forever Wars’

The extraordinary altercation on Monday between Trump campaign aides and an Arlington National Cemetery official over political photography on sacred military ground is playing out in a hyperpartisan moment when war records and former President Donald J. Trump’s respect for military service are already up for debate.

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Federal News Network | VA hiring fell ‘significantly short’ of goals to expand substance abuse treatment for vets

The Department of Veterans Affairs is falling short of its hiring goals in a multiyear effort to expand veterans’ access to substance use disorder treatment.

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Stars & Stripes | Senators push $15M bill to study birth defects in children of veterans exposed to toxic chemicals

The generational effects of chemical warfare agents and other hazardous materials on the descendants of service members would be evaluated under a bill to fund $15 million in research on birth defects identified in the children and grandchildren of toxic-exposed veterans.

The Hill | America is a beached superpower — Europe should not rely on it for security
Thirty years ago this week, on Aug. 31, 1994, the last Russian soldiers departed Estonia and Latvia — a long overdue end to Moscow’s military domination of the Baltics, which had begun ignominiously in 1940 per the sordid terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Stalin and Hitler.

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Foreign Affairs | Putin Will Never Give Up in Ukraine
Two and a half years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States’ strategy for ending the war remains the same: impose enough costs on Russia that its president, Vladimir Putin, will decide that he has no choice but to halt the conflict. In an effort to change his cost-benefit calculus, Washington has tried to find the sweet spot between supporting Ukraine and punishing Russia on the one hand, and reducing the risks of escalation on the other. As rational as this approach may appear, it rests on a faulty assumption: that Putin’s mind can be changed.

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Financial Times | Letter: Remember, Biden extricated US from graveyard of empires
Reflecting on Janan Ganesh’s opinion piece “What Biden Got Right” (August 28) I was struck by the omission from the scorecard President Joe Biden’s decision to end America’s longest war. After 20 years in Afghanistan, and without a military solution on the table, Biden acknowledged the costs — some 2,400 soldiers killed, tens of thousands wounded and a volunteer force exhausted by double-digit deployments — and pulled the plug.

CVA continues the fight for veterans’ health care choice.

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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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After fighting the VA to provide care for her husband, Dawn Longie joined CVA to fight to change the entire VA health care system.

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After faithfully serving our nation for years, Loren Longie came home to his family. Unfortunately, like many veterans Loren suffered at the hands of the Department of Veterans Affairs. After delayed care, denied treatments, and continual failure, Dawn took matters into her own hands and became a “veteran health care super advocate,” according to her husband.

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Her mission is to ensure that veterans like her husband are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, and that they have access to the best care available—whether within the VA or in their local communities. This isn’t just a story about one family; it’s a call to action for all of us to stand up and demand better for those who have served.

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Watch Dawn and Loren’s full story here.

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