The Addiction Game

“The average Halliburton hand knows more about the world than the average member of Congress.”
--Dick Cheney [1]

Our Vice President just might be right, in the same sense that Al Capone perhaps knew more about the world than the average member of Congress, too. Read Hilzoy's [2] exceptionally alert and crucial post about new evidence, hiding in plain sight in the New York Times [3], that KBR has managed to so addict the United States government to its services that, like an evil mafioso pushing heroin, it can bully the addict into doing whatever it likes (in this case neutralize a whistle-blower) by simply refusing to cut off the supply. Or as the Times more decorously puts it, "[warn that if it was not paid, it would reduce payments to subcontractors, which in turn would cut back on services."

Here's Hilzoy's cri de coeur, which goes on to quote damning passages from this book [4]

In fact, KBR did at one point threaten to stop providing basic supplies -- little things like food -- to our troops in Iraq. (I've put the account of this episode below the fold.) What that means is, to my mind, even more scandalous than simple corruption by a company with good connections. It means that we have outsourced absolutely critical functions to private companies, companies which, unlike military personnel, can threaten to stop doing their jobs without facing courts-martial. In wartime, when a company is doing something as important as providing food to our troops, the military has no choice but to cave to their demands. (That's one reason I said it was more scandalous than simple corruption: it virtually ensures that that corruption will occur, while simultanously leaving our troops at risk.)

To my mind, we should not allow any company to assume any critical function in wartime without putting in place some guarantee that it will go on performing that function whether it wants to or not. If it's impossible to do that legally, then that function should not be outsourced. Period. We cannot allow any private company to threaten to stop supplying our troops during wartime. But we have.