three-block war
n.— «Because counterinsurgencies are about winning hearts and minds, officers must be able to juggle what’s called the “three-block war,” fighting insurgents in one block, tending to wounded locals in another, and building a schoolhouse in the third.» —“Three years in Iraq force dramatic military changes” by John Yaukey in Washington, D.C. Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wisc.) Mar. 17, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...
Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: googleganger. Plus, the language of hobbyists and enthusiasts: If you’re a beekeeper, perhaps you call yourself a...