your views
 


“Can [our nation] confidently put the Afghan war behind us? Certainly not, and it weighs heavily on us all.”
—Lt. Col. Brian J. Cummins, USA (Ret) 


 


Withdrawal Effects
In regards to the February 2013 cover story “Going Strong,” as I read the challenges described by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno, I was amazed at what was not discussed: our thinly veiled retreat out of Afghanistan after more than a decade in combat and what that outcome means for the well-being of the force.


Has our Army triumphed over these savage Taliban and al-Qaida enemies where we as a nation, and the Army as an institution, can confidently put the Afghan war behind us? Certainly not, and it weighs heavily on us all.


Perhaps we ought to consider that the currently high suicide rate among our servicemembers is in part related to the fact that they gave a hundred percent of themselves, often at great mortal risk, but an effort not matched by our senior national leadership to see this war through to an unambiguous outcome on our terms.


In 2008, President Barack Obama rightly stated that the struggle against these fanatics was a war we had to win, only to have it devolve into the 2012 election slogan of “ending the war responsibly” (whatever that means). Now it seems we just want out period, a tacit admission of strategic failure that fools no one — least of all the enemy.


Twice I have experienced a strategic defeat of our country; first was Vietnam in my youth, now it seems Afghanistan. The difference of course is that North Vietnam never dared attack our homeland, a fact not true of al-Qaida and their jihadi henchmen.
— Lt. Col. Brian J. Cummins, USA (Ret) Fairfax, Va.


 


History Corrected
I was reading Mark Cantrell’s very fine article on the Montford Point Marines [“History Revealed,” February 2013] when I came across an error in the caption underneath the Marines’ photograph on page 64, stating, in part, “a Montford Point division that went on to serve on Guam from 1943-46 during World War II.”


American forces landed on Guam on July 21, 1944, beginning the campaign to recapture Guam from the Japanese garrison. The war, of course ended in 1945.
— Col. Bill McWilliams, USAF (Ret) Las Vegas


 


TRICARE Compromise?
Your article in the February issue heralding the “TRICARE Win” is misleading. A true TRICARE win would have kept the status quo for TRICARE pharmacy copayments. The DoD attempt to raise the copayment by X resulted in a settlement of something less than X, which is nothing more than a compromise. It was a DoD win, with TRICARE taking another beating. Additionally, a prescription for which I paid a copayment of $25 in October 2012 was refilled on Feb. 13 of this year for $45, a whopping increase of over 60 percent.
— Lt. Col. Don Johnson, USAF (Ret) San Antonio


 


Staking VA Claims
The Military Officer February 2013 issue article “Stake the Claims Snafu” [Washington Scene] correctly highlights the “snafu” [of] the VA’s claims processing backlog. That veterans must wait in excess of nine months to receive benefits they have honorably earned is disgraceful.


Your proposal of preemptively approving all Agent Orange-related is so common sense. To me, this is simply a “Hail Mary pass,” resulting in a major score against the backlog. Benchmarking claims approval to the IRS model, which you so effectively propose, is another readily available solution that can be adopted.
— Col. A. Victor Peña, USA (Ret) Charlottesville, Va.


18 MILITARY OFFICER A PRIL 2013

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