book: the pentagon wars

[dejawolf]

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=e8AwAAAAMAAJ&q=pentagon&pgis=1#search

i think this might be a good book.

[HotTom]

It's an excellent book even if it was first published 15 years ago and there are many more current examples. Everything in this book is Gulf War I or earlier...

It takes aim at two targets: The procurement of weapons that don't work terribly well and AirLand Battle, which was less successful in Desert Storm than CNN told you. Whether it was any better in OIF would make an interesting sequel.

Anyone who has spent any time at all around what is called the T&E (testing and evaluation) community is acutely aware of how cozy the military officers assigned to manage the development of new weapons systems are with the contractors who build the toys.

Usually, those same officers go to work (at very lucrative salaries) for the contractors when they retire. That gives of the military program directors plenty of incentive (while they still are in uniform) to look the other way when stuff doesn't work.

All the former commanders of the Army and Navy testing facilties with which I am familiar are now on the payroll of some of the country's biggest defense contractors.

And when you have guys like Cheney, former CEO of Haliburton, becoming vice president, guess who gets the no-bid contracts?

This is a good read, if a bit dated.

HT