By Jamie Crawford
United States military involvement in Syria would likely cost billions of dollars and carry a range of risks for the forces involved, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey said in a letter released Monday.
"I know that the decision to use force is not one that any of us takes lightly," Dempsey wrote in the letter to Sen. Carl Levin,D-Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It is no less than an act of war."
Dempsey's letter was in response to a request by Levin and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, to provide his assessments of possible scenarios for future involvement in the Syrian civil war.
But it also came with a warning for a military now in a second decade at war. FULL POST
By Bryan Koenig
One inescapable fact of military life is rank has its privileges. At sea, it means that the ship’s captain has a single room while the lowest-ranking sailors may live a dozen to a room or more.
On land, the privilege of rank can translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money spent each year on rent as illustrated in a June Pentagon report highlighting 32 leased homes for senior officers.
One is in Coral Gables, Florida, that the military spends $106,200 each year to rent. It is occupied by the four-star general leading Southern Command, which oversees South America.
Some other lodgings are huge, historical villas.
FULL POST