WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is bolstering a badly understaffed office in Baghdad to speed the flow of war fighting gear to Iraqi forces and to help keep the weapons from insurgents and off the black market.
The increase in staff from six to nearly 70 includes a two-star general who arrived in Iraq two weeks ago to manage the expanding team. The new push is intended to untie the bureaucratic knots blocking aircraft, armored vehicles, radios and guns from getting to Iraqi police and the military units that are taking more control over the country’s security. Over the summer, Iraqi officials complained bitterly that the delays were forcing their troops to fight with inferior equipment.
VA secretary promises to improve vets’ care.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake promised to work with Congress and other federal agencies to act on the recommendations of a bipartisan panel to improve services and health care for veterans.
Peake, 63, the first doctor and first general to serve as Veterans Affairs secretary, said at his swearing-in ceremony Thursday that the report by the panel, led by former Republican Sen. Bob Dole and former Clinton administration Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, will serve as a “powerful blueprint” for his priorities in the job.
He will oversee an agency that had a 2007 budget of $77.3 billion and employs 250,000 people, providing housing, education and disability benefits, health care and burial services for more than 24 million U.S. veterans and their families.
Veterans Affairs has been dogged by complaints of backlogged benefit claims and losses of records at a time when the military health-care system is dealing with an influx of injured service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
