Mark Riley  

President Barack Obama delivered a double dose of good news to the US military. In doing so, he made good on his promise to listen to those who might oppose a policy change he was considering. How different this is than the past eight years, when George W. Bush declared himself "Decider in Chief." 

Obama was considering requiring veterans to use their private health insurance to pay for combat related injuries. It would have saved the government almost a half billion dollars a year, but it was an awful idea. Everyone from the American Legion to "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart slammed it. 

And rightly so. How do you say you honor those who put themselves in harm's way for their country while at the same time forcing them to pay deductibles virtually all private insurers require?

Well, it seems the president was listening. It took around 48 hours after his meeting with the national commander of the American Legion for his press secretary to say the idea has been abandoned. He might well have been paying attention to senior members of Congress, who were vocal in their opposition as well. Either way it was a smart move by the president. And speaking of smart moves....

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced a projected end to one of the military''s most disliked policies. Stop loss was the military's term for the forcible retention of personnel beyond the end of their alloted time in the service. It was used when soldiers were set to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and some 120,000 have been affected by it since 2001. 

Currently there are 13,000 soldiers unable to exit the armed forces. Secretary Gates says that number will be cut in half by June of next year, and eliminated by 2011. That can't be soon enough for military families affected by stop loss. They rightly see it as a backdoor draft, and an extraordinary hard ship on them.

So, the administration gets points from constituents who may not have been solidly in his corner in the past. More importantly, Barack Obama shows he can listen to critics, and absorb what they have to say. It's obvious he's going to need to call on that skill in the immediate future, especially as he tries to navigate the public anger over the AIG bonuses.

But that's another story for another day. What do you think? Did President Obama handle the veteran's insurance issue well?