Lame Calculation: Three For Three

Is this the worst bonus ever? For troops ordered to stay an additional three months in Iraq past their year commitment, the Pentagon is offering three days of leave, or one day per month.

"We weren't trying to find some metaphysical balance between the service you were rendering and buckets full of gold or any other thing we can do for you," says Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Michael Dominguez.

But three days off? You can imagine the reaction. "I mean, one day a month," says one soldier. "That's pretty lame."

By Paul Bedard