Shame on them and shame on us
Joseph L. Galloway McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: March 26, 2008 12:31:38 PM

This week, the Iraq war claimed its 4,000th American killed in action, but that sad and tragic milestone came as the war seems to have slipped off the evening news, off the front pages and from the minds of the American people.

I suppose this benign neglect of so important and damaging an event is combat fatigue on the part of the public. No doubt the White House is happy to see Iraq shoved to a back burner, just as all three presidential candidates are relieved to talk about something else, anything else, but their half-baked ideas about the war.

Shame on them, and shame on us, for such callous indifference to the service, sacrifice and suffering of the families of the dead, wounded and injured troops who've given so much for so little in return.

Vice President Cheney again stuck both feet in his mouth by saying and then repeating that we should remember that our military is composed entirely of volunteers; that our troops all volunteered for this duty, this burden, this sacrifice.

What's your point, Mr. Vice President? That because they volunteered to serve our country in uniform it's okay to squander their lives in a war of choice, your choice and your president's, and that it somehow matters less than if they'd been dragooned into service by press gangs or a draft like the one you dodged with five deferments during the Vietnam War because, you said, you had "better things to do"?

The 58,249 Americans who were killed in the war of your youth had better things to do than rest under their white marble, government-issue tombstones. I'm certain, too, that the 4,000 Americans who've died in the war that you and President Bush launched five years ago for no good reason and several that weren't true had better things to do than die under your command.

No sooner did you and your boss begin celebrating "victory" in the surge in Iraq than new problems erupted in one of the most critical parts of the country, the southern Shiite Muslim city of Basra and nearby oilfields and ports.

Iraq government soldiers are fighting it out with the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr for control of Basra, and the truce that's helped keep a fragile peace in Baghdad's toughest neighborhoods began to unravel. Sadr's militiamen rained mortars and rockets on the Green Zone — the headquarters of the Iraqi government and American diplomats and military commanders — as a pointed reminder of who still holds some good cards in this game.

Sadr turned off his murderous militia for reasons of his own last August, and casualty figures for American forces began falling sharply because Shiite militias were responsible for as much as 65 percent of U.S. casualties. If Sadr now turns his war back on, our casualty figures could rise as swiftly as they fell.

We'll get a good idea from the fighting in Basra about how strong the American-trained Iraqi Army really is as it goes up against Sadr's militiamen. The Iraqi police — American-trained but heavily infiltrated by another militia, the Iranian-backed Badr Organization — ran for their lives early in the fighting.

By the time the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus, arrives in Washington during the second week of April to report to the president and the Congress on the achievements of the surge, he may have less good news to report.

But none of this makes a damn bit of difference if most Americans don't care and don't want to know anything, good or bad, about Iraq, the war and our troops.

That's the sort of apathy and know-nothingness that elected and then re-elected Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. They're what happens when fewer than half the eligible voters in this great experiment in democracy and freedom even care enough to vote on Election Day.

Meantime, our volunteer troops — who comprise about one-half of 1 percent of our population of 300 million — soldier on, bearing the burden and making all the sacrifices on behalf of all the rest of us.

The war that Americans don't want to know about drags on because its authors don't care what you think or even if you think. In fact, they'd prefer that you didn't think or ask any pesky questions that they can't answer without lying.

Will there be Justice and Accountability of the perpetrators of the High Crimes? The Universe is unfolding the Truth...Soon...Soon...~Luis

Independent.co.uk
Pentagon criticised over contract for company run by 22-year-old
By David Usborne in New York
Friday, 28 March 2008

The Pentagon has suspended dealings with its main supplier of munitions to the Afghan government after some cartridges delivered from China and various former eastern bloc countries were found to be more than 40 years old.

Details of the Miami-based company, identified as AEY Inc – headed by Efraim Diveroli, 22, who has little experience in the arms business, and a vice-president who was a licensed masseur – were revealed yesterday by The New York Times. The suspension seems to have been triggered by evidence that the men misled US officials about the true sources of the equipment and, in particular, that large consignments of cartridges had originated in China, which may have been a violation both of its contract and United States law.

AEY struck lucky when it was chosen as the Pentagon's lead munitions supplier for Afghanistan, with one federal contract awarded to it last year worth in excess of $300m (£150m). AEY is also under criminal investigation by the Defence Department and Customs and Excise. The affair is also deeply embarrassing for the Pentagon, which decided to turn to the private sector to keep the Afghan forces supplied when the insurgency in the country intensified in 2006.

But in awarding contracts, procurement officials appear to have been astonishingly careless in vetting those contractors or stipulating limits on the provenance or quality of the munitions.

That such an important deal should have been handed to a man so young, and with a record of repeated clashes with law enforcement officers in Miami related to disputes with girlfriends and minor assaults, will leave many officials red-faced. Nor was it reassuring to discover that the main skills of the second most senior executive at AEY were in massage techniques.

Mr Diveroli told the New York Times he was unaware of the Pentagon's decision to bar him from future contracts. Officials said a letter confirming the move had been sent to him on Tuesday.

Last December, he had denied any suggestion of wrongdoing. "I know that my company does everything 100 per cent on the up-and-up, and that's all I'm concerned about," he said.

But it appears that at least some of the ammunition he supplied had come from stockpiles of obsolete and unreliable weaponry already designated for destruction by Nato. Experts say cartridges can become less efficient and possibly defective after a certain number of years. AEY also reportedly dispatched some consignments in crumbling packaging.

An Afghan commander in Nawa, an outpost near the Pakistan border, said a cardboard box of cartriges split, to reveal that they had been made in China in 1966. "This is what they give us for the fighting," said Amanuddin, a colonel, who like many Afghans uses only one name. "It makes us worried because too much of it is junk."

Also under scrutiny are the identities of shell companies and murky middle-men that Mr Diveroli apparently engaged to negotiate the purchase of the equipment from Kazakhstan and east European states including Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania and Slovakia.

A taped telephone conversation involving Mr Diveroli reportedly hinted at corruption in the acquisition of 100 million rounds of ammunition from Albania. Investigators also suspect that some entities who worked with AEY may appear on US lists of illegal arms traffickers.

I mean, what can you say about this? I wish Congress would ask me to testify about the things I know concerning corruption and contractors, etc.~Luis

Bleak picture of Iraq conditions
BBC News

Iraqi hospitals lack qualified staff and basic drugs, the report said
Bleak life in Iraq.

Millions of Iraqis have little or no access to clean water, sanitation and healthcare, five years after the US-led invasion, according to the Red Cross.
The Swiss-based agency says Iraq's humanitarian situation is "among the most critical in the world".

It warned that despite better security in some areas, millions had been left essentially to fend for themselves.

Some families spend a third of their average monthly wage of $150 (£75) just buying clean water, the report found.

'Worse than ever'

An even worse humanitarian crisis in Iraq will only be averted if much more attention is paid to the everyday needs of Iraqi citizens, the report by the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Healthcare in Iraq was "now in worse shape than ever" and the services that are available are too expensive for many people, the report said.

Iraqi hospitals lack qualified staff and basic drugs, facilities are not properly maintained and public hospitals provide only 30,000 beds, less than half of the 80,000 needed, the Red Cross reports.

The agency said the current situation had been exacerbated for the 27m population by decades of previous conflict and economic sanctions.

Vanishings

The report also says that tens of thousands of Iraqis had effectively disappeared since the start of the war.

"Many of those killed in the current violence have never been properly identified, because only a small percentage of the bodies have been turned over to Iraqi government institutions," it said.

Violence rates in the country have fallen 60% since last June, although the US military commander there, Gen David Petraeus, says the security gains are fragile and could be easily reversed.

But Beatrice Megevand Roggo of the Red Cross said: "Better security in some parts of Iraq must not distract attention from the continuing plight of millions of people who have essentially been left to their own devices."

Tens of thousands of Iraqis - nearly all men - are in detention, according to the agency, including 20,000 inmates at Camp Bucca near Basra, which is run by US-led multinational forces.

Iraq is the Red Cross's largest operation worldwide with an annual budget of $106m (£52m) and 600 staff.

Story from BBC NEWS

Suffering abounds in Iraq while Petraeus and Crocker continue to deceive the American people regarding the real status of the situation in Iraq. Hopefully, members of Congress will ask a number of those of us who know the real deal to testify before a committee under oath to expose the lies, corruption and dereliction of duty committed by them and others and witnessed by us.~Luis

Female suicide bomber kills 43 in Iraq
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 51 minutes ago

A female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in the holy city of Karbala on Monday, an official and a witness said, killing at least 43 people and leaving pools of blood on the street leading to one of Iraq's most revered mosques.

The blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left at least 72 Iraqis dead, including six youths killed when mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field in eastern Baghdad.

Two U.S. soldiers also were killed Monday in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, bringing the American death toll closer to 4,000 as the U.S.-led war enters its sixth year. At least 3,990 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 violence marred overlapping trips by Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain to Baghdad. Their visits were aimed at touting recent security gains and stressing Washington's long-term commitment to fighting insurgents in Iraq.

The U.S. Embassy and military issued a joint statement blaming al-Qaida in Iraq for the Karbala attack.

The bomber struck after the worshippers had gathered at a sacred historical site about half a mile from the golden domed shrine of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in a seventh-century battle.

A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said the attacker was a woman — as did a witness.

The U.S. military described the attack as a suicide operation but put the casualty toll at 40 Iraqis killed and 65 wounded. The U.S. statement said the identity of the bomber remained unknown.

Brig. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, Karbala's police chief, said 43 people were killed and 73 wounded. He denied it was a suicide attack, saying a bomb had been planted in the area. The discrepancies could not immediately be resolved.

Karim Khazim, the city's chief health official, said seven of those killed were Iranian pilgrims who had traveled to the holy site.

AP Television News footage showed a man carefully picking up pieces of flesh and wires apparently from a fuse as evening prayer services were broadcast from loudspeakers nearby.

The witness, who did not identify himself, told AP Television News that a woman in the crowd had blown herself up.

If true, it would be among the deadliest attacks carried out by women during the Iraq conflict.

Female suicide bombers have been involved in at least 20 attacks or attempted attacks since the war began, including the grisly bombings of two pet markets in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people last month.

The U.S. military has warned that insurgents are using female attackers because they can more easily avoid checkpoint searches and can hide the explosives under traditional all-encompassing black Islamic robes.

Police closed the area around the twin golden dome mosques and blocked all roads leading to the sites, which include tombs of Imam Hussein and his half brother, also a Shiite saint.

Ali Hassan, 30, a clothing merchant who was wounded in the blast, said he was standing near his stall "when I heard a big explosion and I felt strong fire throwing me in the air."

"The only thing I know is there was a big explosion and I saw bodies flying in the air," said Hassan Khazim, 36, who was wounded in the face. "All the tight security measures designed to protect us were in vain."

The predominantly Shiite city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, enjoys tight security. Monday's attack was the deadliest in Karbala since a suicide car bomber killed at least 63 people on April 28, 2007.

Explosions also struck earlier Monday not far from the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone, shortly after Cheney arrived. Helicopter gunships circled central Baghdad.

Despite several high-profile bombings, violence levels have dropped sharply in recent months with a U.S. troop buildup, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a cease-fire by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

But noting the fragility of the security gains, Cheney warned against large drawdowns of American troops, saying it is very important that "we not quit before the job is done."

McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who has linked his political future to military success in Iraq, also promised to uphold a long-term military commitment to the country so long as al-Qaida in Iraq is not defeated.

Both men met in back-to-back meetings with Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government has been accused of failing to make sufficient political progress.

Al-Maliki said he and the vice president discussed ongoing negotiations over a long-term security agreement between the two countries that would replace the U.N. mandate for foreign troops set to expire at the end of the year.

"This visit is very important. It is about the nature of the relations between the two countries, the future of those relations and the agreement in this respect," the prime minister told reporters. "We also discussed the security in Iraq, the development of the economy and reconstruction and terrorism."

McCain stressed it was important to maintain the U.S. commitment in Iraq, where a U.S.-Iraq operation is under way to clear al-Qaida in Iraq from what the military says is the terror group's last urban stronghold of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

"We recognize that al-Qaida is on the run, but they are not defeated," McCain said after meeting al-Maliki. "Al-Qaida continues to pose a great threat to the security and very existence of Iraq as a democracy. So we know there's still a lot more of work to be done."

McCain, who arrived in Iraq on Sunday, told reporters that he also discussed with the Shiite leader the need for progress on political reforms, including laws on holding provincial elections and the equitable distribution of Iraq's oil riches.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., speaking to reporters from Kuwait after a visit to Iraq, said Iraq should begin picking up more of the bills.

"We're paying for things that Iraqis clearly should be paying for," Levin said. "They have the capability, the surplus funds to do their own reconstruction, and to do their own weapons purchases and other things which we're paying for and they need to pay for."
__
Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Violence in Iraq has not decreased. The U.S. is not tallying Iraq deaths honestly. Additionally, 70% of Baghdad's residents have fled (left) Baghdad so a decrease in violence there is hardly relevant. The purported "Surge Success" is bogus.~Luis

The U.S. military in Iraq is not counting civilian deaths accurately. They continue to downplay the violence and deaths in an attempt to promulgate "Surge Success." It is simply unbelieveable how they are getting away with it.~Luis

5 US soldiers killed in Baghdad
By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer
Mon Mar 10, 11:56 AM ET

A suicide bomber killed five American soldiers on a foot patrol Monday after detonating his explosives vest in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said, the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Iraq in more than a month.

Four of the soldiers died at the scene and the fifth died later from wounds, the military said in a statement. The blast also wounded three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter, the military said.

Military spokesman Maj. Mark Cheadle said that "it was reported to us as a suicide bomber."

An Iraqi police officer at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said two civilians also were killed and another eight wounded in the attack.

It was the deadliest attack since Jan. 28, when five U.S. soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul.

Monday's deaths brought the number to 3,979 members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Meanwhile, a female suicide bomber on Monday killed the head of a local group of Sunni fighters northeast of Baghdad who had turned against al-Qaida insurgents, the leader's brother and a provincial police official said.

Sheik Thaeir Ghadhban al-Karkhi, his 5-year-old niece, a 24-year cousin and a security guard were killed in the blast in Diyala province, where violence has persisted despite drops in other parts of Iraq.

Duraid Mahmoud, the sheik's brother, told The Associated Press he witnessed the attack inside his brother's home. A provincial police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, confirmed the attack.

The woman, wearing an explosives belt, entered al-Karkhi's home in the predominantly Sunni town of Kanaan, 13 miles east of Baqouba.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But al-Qaida in Iraq has been targeting fellow Sunni Arabs who have taken up arms against the militants and joined the so-called awakening councils like the one al-Karkhi led.

The councils are made up of U.S.-backed former insurgents who have risen up against al-Qaida's brutality and strict Islamic codes of conduct it was trying to impose on local populations.

The U.S. military said it was looking into the incident but did not immediately have any details.

Mahmoud said the bomber had visited the sheik's house on Sunday, claiming that her husband had been kidnapped and asking for help. Mahmoud said his brother told the woman to return Monday.

"She came back this morning and nobody checked her. She had an appointment with the sheik and the guards told her to go and knock on his door," Mahmoud said.

The woman was ushered into the house and blew herself up once she got close to the sheik, he said, adding that the sheik's 5-year-old niece and a security guard were also killed.

One of the men wounded in the attack — the son of a cousin of the sheik — later died at the hospital, according to a hospital official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Hours after the attack, mourners packed al-Karkhi's home, weeping over the sheik's body, which had been wrapped in a blue blanket and placed in a black, wooden coffin.

Female suicide bombers have been involved in at least 19 attacks or attempted attacks since the war began, including the grisly bombings of two pet markets in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people on Feb. 1.

A female suicide bomber last struck in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Feb. 17, detonating herself after soldiers fired three bullets at her. Causalities were disputed in that attack, with Iraqi officials saying four people were killed, while the U.S. military said only the bomber died.

In southern Iraq, the body of a doctor who was kidnapped on Sunday was found.

Dr. Khalid Nasir al-Miyahi, a neurologist working at a hospital in Basra, was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, police said. His body was found in a central area of the city.

According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry released earlier this year, 618 medical employees, including 132 doctors, as well as medics and other health care workers, have been killed nationwide since 2003. Professionals from many fields have been targeted in Iraq's violence.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of other medical personnel are believed to have fled to Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdistan region and neighboring countries.

Elsewhere, two nearly simultaneous attacks took place in Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood, one of the capital's most dangerous areas and a center for outlawed Shiite fighters.

The first attack was a roadside bomb that targeted an American patrol around 9:15 a.m., local time, police said. One civilian was wounded.

There was no immediate word on any American causalities; the military did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for information.

The second attack took place five minutes later, when a parked car bomb detonated, wounding six civilians and damaging several nearby shops, police said.

The "Surge" is not working and will not work. The Iraq Civil War continues to rage on and foolish and derelict Generals continue to believe in pipe dreams based on Western-minded thinking.~Luis

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq
06 Feb 2008

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1300 GMT on Wednesday.

* denotes new or updated item.

* KIFRI - U.S. forces killed seven al Qaeda militants and detained 11 other suspects during operations southwest of Kifri near Tuz Khurmato, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

* BAGHDAD - Four bodies were found in different areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.

* BAGHDAD - Two neighbourhood policemen were killed after confronting a militant wearing a suicide bomb vest outside a photography shop northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

* MOSUL - Two people were wounded when mortar rounds hit residential areas in southern and northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

* MOSUL - Three civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb attack in eastern Mosul, police said. In a separate incident, two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded by their vehicle in northern Mosul.

MUQDADIYA - Five headless bodies were found in a village near the town of Muqdadiya, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of Baghdad, the Iraqi army said.

BAQUBA - Three headless bodies were found near the city of Baquba, 65 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad, the Iraqi army said.

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi army killed five suspected insurgents and arrested 125 others in different parts of Iraq during the past 24 hours, the Defence Ministry said.

SAYAFIYA - U.S. forces detained 10 suspected insurgents in the town of Sayafiya, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, on Monday, the U.S. military said.

RAMADI - U.S. and Iraqi forces detained three men suspected of trafficking weapons in the city of Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, on Sunday, the U.S. military said.

MOSUL - U.S. soldiers detained three suspected insurgents in the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

NAJAF - Police said they found the bodies of a 16-year-old girl and young man in the city of Najaf, 160 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad. The girl had been stabbed and the man had suffered severe head injuries.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of four people were found in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

MOSUL - Two policemen were killed and three others, including a civilian, were wounded in a drive-by shooting in Mosul, police said.

DIWANIYA - Four people were killed and nine others wounded, including seven policemen, when a roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying detainees in the city of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.

SAMARRA - Gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers in an attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint in the city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. One civilian was wounded by random fire which broke out after the attack.

HILLA - The body of a man who had been shot in the head was found near the city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

SAMARRA - Gunmen killed Issam Hassani, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a hardline group of Sunni clerics, in his shop in Samarra on Tuesday, police said.

BAGHDAD - Three people were wounded by a roadside bomb near al-Andalus Square in central Baghdad, police said.

TUZ KHURMATO - A woman was killed and two men wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a minibus on Tuesday in the town of Tuz Khurmato, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - Gunmen killed a man on Tuesday in Mosul, police said.

BAQUBA - Three women and one man were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle near Baquba, police said.

Well, it sure sounds like the Iraq Civil War is abating doesn't it? Yet, our Generals still propagate tactical successes when the situation remains a nightmare.~Luis

Embattled Veterans Official Resigns Post
By Aaron Glantz
Inter Press Service

Friday 29 February 2008

San Francisco - Another high-ranking George W. Bush administration official has resigned. The Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Benefits Daniel Cooper quit Thursday amid mounting criticism over a backlog of disability claims for injured veterans that runs six months long and an appearance he made in a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organisation where he said Bible study was more important than doing his job.

Cooper has been under fire for using his office to proselytise for evangelical Christianity ever since he appeared in a 2004 fundraising video for Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.

In the video, Cooper says of his Bible study, "It's not really about carving out time, it really is a matter of saying what is important. And since that's more important than doing the job - the job's going to be there, whether I'm there or not."

Cooper's declaration inflamed veterans who saw the number of veterans waiting for the Veterans Administration (VA) to decide their disability claims balloon to 400,000on his watch, with the average veteran waiting six months for a decision from the government.

"He was clearly a fundamentalist Christian first and essentially a government paid missionary for his particular world view of the gospel of Jesus Christ," said Mike Weinstein, who runs the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. "The fact that he's gone obviously is good."

Spokespersons for the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to grant an interview for this story.

In a statement, Bush's Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake praised Cooper, saying, "Dan Cooper's leadership, management savvy and personable touch were indispensable in guiding VA benefits programmes into the Internet era and adapting the department to the needs of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan."

Most veterans groups disagree.

"Cooper was in charge of and responsible for massive injustice for hundreds of thousands of veterans who slipped through the cracks waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for disability benefits," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of the group Veterans for Common Sense.

"He was fully aware that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were putting a burden on VA in 2004 and he did nothing," Sullivan added. "In 2005, he was told again. He did nothing. In 2006, he was told again. He did nothing. In 2007, when the Walter Reed scandal broke, all Cooper could do was say that he would make some marginal changes."

Cooper's resignation - for "personal reasons" - comes two on the heels of President Bush's signing two months ago of the Dignity for Wounded Warriors Act, which has numerous provisions designed to lessen the bureaucracy that wounded veterans face when they return home from Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans' advocates say they hope Daniel Cooper's resignation will lead to serious changes in the way the VA does its job.

But Matt Cary, the president of Veterans and Military Families for Progress, says the Bush administration has been slow to implement key reforms.

"I'm concerned that agencies that are this large and have been institutionalised for a long time will have difficulty in streamlining this and moving it quick enough to alleviate the needs of veterans and their families," Cary told IPS.

More than 263,000 veterans have received treatment from the VA after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Close to 250,000 have filed disability claims. A new book released this week co-authored by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates that 700,000 U.S. war veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan will eventually file for disability.

"They need to have this income," Cary said. "If it's a disabled veteran, then the spouse needs to stay home and take care of that veteran and the faster that they can move this process along, the easier it will be for that spouse to be able to go to work and provide additional income for their family."

Pentagon studies show about 20 percent of returning veterans (320,000 people) suffer from physical brain damage called traumatic brain injury. Government studies also show that as many 50 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans (800,000 people) suffer from the psychological injury post-traumatic stress disorder.

Daniel Cooper's resignation is effective Apr. 1. Under federal law, a search commission will be put together to present recommendations for Cooper's successor to the secretary to propose to the president for appointment. The VA's under-secretary for benefits is subject to Senate confirmation and serves at the pleasure of the president.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron Glantz has reported extensively from Iraq and on the treatment of US soldiers when they return home. He is editor of the website www.warcomeshome.org and will be co-hosting Pacifica Radio's live broadcast of the Winter Soldier hearings from March 14-16.