President Obama wants Congress to authorize a U.S. military-led operation against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The president says he’s not committing the country to another drawn-out, costly war. But getting just one pair of boots on the ground costs a lot of money.

It’s not just bombs and bullets: It’s all the civilian support required to sustain a deployment of any size for any period of time. In this case, the main weapon used may be airpower, and the footprint may not be as large as it was in Afghanistan or Iraq at the height of the war. But there will be plenty of work for civilian contractors.

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