In the two months since the SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and it was revealed that a military dog accompanied the team, much attention has been given to the highly-trained dogs that accompany soldiers in the field. General Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, favors the use of dogs: “The capability they [the dogs] bring to the fight cannot be replicated by man or machine,” he says, reported ABC. “By all measures of performance, their yield outperforms any asset we have in our industry. Our Army would be remiss if we failed to invest more in this incredibly valuable resource.”

The canine soldiers have become so popular there is even a “War Dog of the Week” page at foreignpolicy.com.