By today, Pentagon officials intent on raising health care fees and co-payments for military retirees should realize they are in for a major and probably unwinnable fight. Reps. Chet Edwards (D-Tex.), House Appropriations Committee, and Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-N.C.), House Armed Services Committee, who on March 15 unveiled legislation to block the increases, also are out to strip DOD of any power to tamper with the program. Jones had a warning for the Bush administration: “They had better get on our side or they are going to get embarrassed.”
Control of the skies in Operation Epic Fury is enabling the Pentagon to rely more on satellite- and laser-guided bombs, throttle back on expensive long-range standoff munitions, and move to a new phase of air war, defense officials said on March 4. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen.…