Pentagon Late Fees for Storage Boxes: $720M

10% surcharge could cover next year's bill: Walter Pincus

(NEWSER) - With the debt supercommittee looking to slash the deficit, some in Washington are raising an old question, notes Walter Pincus in the Washington Post : What about a tax on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? “These wars ought to be paid for and not put on a credit card so that our kids will have to pay for this in the future,” Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern tells him in an interview. “It’s morally wrong for members [of Congress] to call for support of our soldiers and then not ask the rest of us to pay for it.” More»

Action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan approaching cost of WWII: study

(NEWSER) - The real cost of American military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan dwarfs the $1.3 trillion appropriated on Capitol Hill, according to a study by Brown University's nonpartisan Eisenhower Research Project. The study estimates that the war bills already paid or obligated to be paid are at least $3.2 trillion and probably closer to $4 trillion, with the bulk of the spending buried in a variety of budgets and invisible to taxpayers, reports Reuters . More»

A look back at the retiring defense secretary's career

(NEWSER) - With Robert Gates, who has served eight presidents over four decades, about to retire, the Washington Post looks back at how Gates operated in the Pentagon. He’s been “careful, conservative, and consensus-oriented,” writes Greg Jaffe, and he’s “earned a reputation as the most ruthlessly efficient defense secretary in decades.” So what can we learn from his tenure?

• Buy time. Defense Department reviews following troop surges in Iraq and Afghanistan gave Presidents Bush and Obama a sense of the military’s trajectory—and they bought time against critics calling for quick drawdowns.

Bradley Manning only worked on Iraq war

(NEWSER) - Who could've given nearly 1 million classified Afghanistan war documents to WikiLeaks? The military is taking a close look at Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst already charged with leaking documents to the site. Manning would be a perfect suspect, except for one fact: He was stationed in Iraq and had no access to Afghanistan documents. Nonetheless, investigators are examining his computers to see if he could have hacked other military computers to gain the files, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Gates slams tactic to delay health bill

(NEWSER) - Senate Democrats beat back a Republican attempt to filibuster a huge Pentagon spending bill in a post-midnight session last night. Republican success would have forced the government to seek a new stopgap way to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, delaying health care legislation in the process. Three Republicans broke ranks and voted to cut off debate after the Democrats reached 60 votes. More»