IRAQ: A house divided...

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To pay for their share of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marines have skimped elsewhere, like upgrading enlisted housing at Camp Pendleton. Some of it dates to the Korean War.

Now the Marines Corps says it cannot wait any longer to provide better base housing.

‘When you have Marines say ‘I’d rather be in combat than at the (bachelor enlisted quarters) at Camp Pendleton,’ we’ve got a problem,’ Sgt. Major Carlton Kent, the top enlisted man in the corps, told a gathering here Monday of several thousand Marines.

A ripple of approval ran through the crowd.

— Tony Perry in Al Asad, Iraq