Veterans Affairs has created a Web page specifically for the new inter-agency task force looking into the bureaucracy confronting combat veterans who try to get help from VA and other federal agencies. The VA has included an e-mail function (find it on the Web page under Contact) to enable anyone to send comments to the task force. A VA release says the comments “will be studied by the task force, used in the panel’s evaluation of gaps in service, and form the basis of recommended solutions.” This is one of the groups the Administration has established following the revelations of substandard care and bureaucratic hassles for some outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.