It’s not IF you’ll go down, it’s WHEN.

It’s an old adage—one talking about motorcycle riders and crashing—and it’s true. Every motorcyclist has had an accident, whether it be merely dropping the bike (literally dropping it on the ground), or laying it down (also known as “totally crashing” it), and if they haven’t had an accident, they will. The simple fact is motorcycles are dangerous.

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Chief Pentagon Correspondent, Meredith Mackenzie, will cover a briefing from Camp Fallujah in Iraq at the Pentagon.

The Washington bureau will cover the “Discussion on the Housing and Lessons for Monetary Policy” at the Brookings Institution and “the Latest Consumer attitudes towards the gasoline prices” at the National Press Club. The organizers of the event, the Consumer Federation of America, will also release a new quarterly report on gasoline consumption, expenditures and oil imports.
The Bureau will also attend the briefing on the self-funded campaigns, organized by the Cato Institute.

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DARPA, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, held an event with Urban Challenge Vehicles. Urban Challenge Vehicles are vehicles that are unmanned and function off of laser and GPS systems. It is a joint project among automakers, the department of defense, universities and others. On November 3, 2007, the Urban Challenge was held in California in which multiple vehicles participated on a course that was filled with traffic obstacles, pedestrians and other vehicles.

There were six top finishers from 2007 and the first place winner took a two million dollar prize, second place a one million dollar prize and third place received a half million dollar prize. The race was 53 miles long and was held in Victorville, former home to George Air Force Base. The total budget for the cars ranged from one to three million, depending on the type of vehicle and technology it is equipped with. One of the vehicles on display was powered by only five mac minis. This project is taking place because of the Presidential mandate that by 2015, the military has to have a certain number of unmanned vehicles.

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Live from Afghanistan this morning in a press briefing held in the Pentagon, US Army General Robert Livingston, Deputy Commanding General of Combined Security Transition Command, said we will see a “different summer.” Since the last time he spoke, they have been mentoring the police, and looking towards the long-term efforts in Afghanistan.

One of the main focuses is to retrain and reinsert the police force, utilizing ANCOP to replace them. There is a training surge, he said, and they are primarily focused on individual training. ANCOP is a bit like a national SWAT unit, Livingston said, and they are divided into units, which are trained to act as a unit instead of individually. They are being trained for multipurpose tasks, but, the military needs more police trainers. The need for more trainers is being touched on but is not moving as fast as they would like.

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President Bush discusses the cost of war during speech at the Pentagon. (0:35)

 

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Army Col. John Charlton, commander of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, briefing the Pentagon press about conditions in Western Iraq paints an optimistic picture of conditions in Ramadi, saying that the economy is booming and his biggest security problem is traffic on the roadways. (0:43)

 

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Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell held a press briefing today. Among issues being discussed was the Boeing/Airbus deal. Morrell stated that the Pentagon feels there is no indication that Boeing will protest Airbus’s victory over the contract. He further stated that he believed this to be a fair and transparent deal, and that the war fighters will be getting the best planes available.

Another topic briefly touched upon was the dirty water provided by KBR to US troops. Morrell commented that the bottled water provided had no issues in testing and that the other water may have been solely meant for washing. He also mentioned that there had been no widespread illness amongst the troops, and since 2006, all water has met health standards.

Morrell then proceeded to discuss the situation in Iraq. He stated that Secretary Gates has recommended pausing to determine the impact of the last four surge brigades to identify possible later courses of action. He stated that there has been a line of improvement in security conditions in Iraq.

In answering a question about estimates of the cost of the war, Morrell stated that since September 11, 2001, $527 billion has been spent on the war on terror: $406.2 billion on Operation Iraqi Freedom, 92.9 billion on Operation Enduring Freedom, and 27.8 billion on Noble Eagle, or homeland defense. When told that outside estimates of the cost of the war were $3 trillion, Morrell said that that seems to be way out there, and that the department has tried to be as transparent as possible.

Morrell reported that as we near the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq, 3,974 have regrettably been killed serving the US. In addition to this, there are 16,011 soldiers wounded-in-action whom have returned to duty, and 13,009 soldiers wounded-in-action whom have not returned to duty.

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At the press conference today. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) talks about the KRB and its failure to provide the soldiers with clean water in Iraq. He is outraged, yet remains curious, by the fact that the military and the contractors denied the allegations. He seems to seek for answers as to why the military lied about the allegations, when they already were aware of the facts, at a hearing last year. (0:48)

 

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Gen. Raymond Odierno, former commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, summarizing his 15 months in Iraq, says that a change in tactics following the surge helped to eliminate safe havens for al-Qaida. (0:42)

 

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During a press briefing at the Pentagon via teleconference from Iraq, Gen. Tony Thomas, assistant division commander, Multinational Division-North says that the Iraqi government is “awash” in money for reconstruction coming from oil revenues. (0:54)

 

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