No One Could Have Imagined…
That taking vehicles to a desert with 120+ degree temperatures and sand storms and driving them 24/7 while they are being hit by small arms fire, RPGs, and shrapnel from IEDs might increase the amount of maintenance costs and reduce the assumed life cycle of the equipment.
Apparently Rummy classed that as an “unknown unknown” because CBS reports that Army Equipment Costs Triple, and Donny forgot to put that in his regular DoD budget request.
I’m beginning to suspect that the Pentagon still hasn’t figured out the implications when the Iraqis failed to throw rose petals and start building Wal-Marts after Rumsfeld’s invasion-on-a-dollar-a-day.
The problem is that Rumsfeld never read the right book: The Science of Victory [Наука Побеждать] by A. V. Suvorov.
Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov (Александр Васильевич Суворов) knew nothing about losing because he made a point of winning every battle he fought. There is no need to analyze errors, because he didn’t make them which is why he was Prince of Italy, Count of Rimnik, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Prince of Sardinia, Generalissimo of Russia’s Ground and Naval forces, Field Marshal of the Austrian and Sardinian Armies.
Suvorov didn’t believe in detailed plans because they depended on your enemy having the same plan and following it. He didn’t believe in close order drill, because he had “never been attacked on a parade ground.” He did believe in speed and using the forces you had available, but you kept the troops coming to control what you had won. And he was a pioneer in realistic training: “train hard to fight easy” which doesn’t include curtailing training to cut expenses.
This situation is essentially more of a management problem than a purely military problem, highlighting Rumsfeld’s incompetence as a manager as well as a leader.
6 comments
… Donny forgot to put that in his regular DoD budget request.
I wonder why. Wrong company got the maintenance contract?
The problem is that Rumsfeld never read the right book: …
It would help if we had a real president who had ever read any real book, a real president who was not afraid to keep Rummy in line… nah; there I go dreaming again.
Steve, this is basic to any kind of business. Maintenance scheduling is a standard, off-the-shelf program, not rocket science. Hell, they didn’t even increase ammunition purchases after they started the war. They though this was going to be a couple of months at the outside.
They printed up their time line and just assumed that the project would adhere to it.
They did not even remember to get Iraq to surrender and have the army stack its arms.
They aren’t qualified to manage a McDonald’s.
What we have hear is not only a serious lack of imagination, but a grotesque lack of experience and common sense. Not to mention criminal hubris, greed & arrogance.
I’ve never even served in the military, but even I know the old military maxim that battle plans never survive the first encounter with the enemy. Where in God’s name did the Shrubbery find a sufficient supply of complete naïfs to staff the Pentagon entirely with people who couldn’t find their way to the men’s room without a guide?
*put that in their budget requests*? I think these are still being passed off as “Emergency Spending Appropriations” to avoid the budgetary hemmoraging once these costs are factored in to the Federal *High Tide and Rising* Budget Deficit!
Blech…feckless morons and idiots who can’t *govern* nor *manage* to save our lives!
Andante, from what I’ve read they sign exclusive, single-source contracts for a lot of things, which is just stupid for a business and borders on criminal for the military. No doubt the vehicle repair contract is slow because the guy Halliburton subcontracted the job to only has one limb on the tree in his backyard strong enough to support pulling engines.
Michael, this is basic to any organization. This is budgeting. Your office at the university has to be better at budgeting than this or someone would lose their job. It’s not like the military doesn’t have the records to tell you what the predicted costs will be.
Karen, they are putting all kinds of routine expenses in the “emergency” requests to avoid having to justify them. It’s another way of avoiding oversight.