Not sure what your point is, but you need to work on your facts a bit. My military experience spans 34 years, and I worked on all sides of the procurement and acquisition areas at one time or another.
There are actually several types of contracts that the government uses, only one of which is low bid. Low bid is not used on anywhere near all government contracts. Many military contracts (especially large, long term construction jobs) are done on firm fixed price or cost plus. It all depends on who is willing to take the contract business risk. I won't deny that there have been abuses, but the $100 screwdriver is more likely the result of accounting issues and stupid contract management than anything else. In the mid 90s, the military got into outsourcing in a big way, figuring that paying a soldier to cook meals and clean latrines instead of carrying a rifle and shooting bad guys was not a good use of the taxpayers' dollars. There were a number of multi-year blanket contracts done (and oh, by the way...to the low bidder...) and Kellogg Brown and Root (which is a subsidiary of Halliburton), won several of those contracts. KBR didn't have to bid on the contract in Iraq...they were already under contract since Clinton's war in Bosnia. In fact, Brown and Root has done many of the same kinds of services for the military since at least the 1960's. A lot of the bases in Vietnam were built by B&R which later merged with M.W. Kellogg, and was later acquired by Halliburton. It should also be pointed out that all of these folks have done this type of work for civilian companies and government organizations around the world for many, many years. If you need something built in a bad place, there are only a few companies willing to take the risk to do it. KBR is one of them, and anyone who has worked with them will tell you they do damn good work and they earn every penny. As far as the hummer goes, the vehicle was not designed to be an armored vehicle. Like the (unarmored) jeep it replaced, it was a vehicle for moving people and light equipment. Historically, vehicles used for transport were not armored. If you needed armor, you used a tank or a Bradley. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the bad guys started using IEDs to target our guys who were driving around in hummers. Like soldiers and Marines have always done, the grunts figured out how to carry bigger guns and armor their hummers. Like Rumsfeld said, we had a project to add armor to every vehicle that needed it, but it can't be done overnight. The question asked by the soldier in the press conference in Iraq was the result of prodding by a scumbag reporter, who then proceeded to report on only part of Rumsfeld's answer and make it sound like he didn't care. The internet is full of information. Why don't you try finding out what the real facts are instead of just repeating urban legends? and...I AM PROUD to be an American, PROUD of what I accomplished in 34 years in the Navy, and extremely thankful for the young men and women who have picked up that responsibility to protect and defend our freedom from those who would take it from us. Royce Engler 1985 300TD Turbo 265K -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Bill Gallagher Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 12:50 AM To: Mercedes mailing list Subject: Re: [MBZ] Re: price of diesel...interesting theory... Keep in mind bids on governments contracts for over 50 years, except for Iraq, the low reasonable bid wins the contract .... do not expect the best quality or performance ..... expect close to but above junk quality so the contractor will supply replacement part at high prices like the $100.00 dollar screw driver not to mention the $20.00 dollar bolt which both can be purchased for under 20 at True Value ..... God Bless the Private Contractors of America .... They deserve to take advantage of the situation .... It's the American Way like Halabertion ...... the Medical Industry does the same, 50 dollars for aspirin and the list goes on ....See what lack of enforcement does to quality ???? Just recalling my military experience far, far, ago .... Look at the hummer, no type of protection, or armor shield, high rate of damage... Recall the solder asking Rumsfelt about the Hummer ???? Or the company retrofitting hummers can do more than the contract calls for ????? like the Sherman tank against the German Tiger.... no match, a sure kill ..... lots of solders die until the late 1950's until the new design ,,,,,,, Beware of the Military Industrial Complex - President Ike ..... and today is support our solders ..... with near junk equipment ..... do you feel proud to be a A ???? Bill 1981 300 TD
