Tom Christie on Failure of Acquisition Reform
07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military
Tom Christie spent almost 50 years inside the DOD acquisition apparatus, concluding his career as a top level civilian professional directing DOD's office of Operational Test and Evaluation. Since the 1960s, he has seen every single stab at reforming how we develop and buy weapons come and go – and fail. Today, as measured by GAO and many others, cost overruns are higher, deliveries are later, and the biggest DOD budget since the end of World War II buys us the smallest, oldest force structure and weapons inventory since 1946.
Christie has a straight forward explanation: the buying apparatus in the Pentagon, Congress and industry does not enforce the declared intent of acquisition laws and regulations, they circumvent the intent – thanks to the multiple loopholes and dodges assiduously inserted by Congress, the Pentagon and industry. Politely, he calls this a lack of “discipline.”
Listen to his interview and explanation at Federal News Radio.
This interview is part of a series; find a link to these and several other related interviews at one of the webpages devoted to the anthology, The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It.
Interested in more details of Christie's explanation? Find the text of his essay in The Pentagon Labyrinth at , and find the entire text of The Pentagon Labyrinth.
Want to make a comment about Christie's or any other author's essay? Want to hold a debate? We welcome that. Let me know by emailing winslowwheeler at msn.com.
Phi Beta Iota: Integrity is a self-healing system. No one dealing with acquisition has it. This has gotten so out of hand it is now an atrocity.
General Electric 2010: No Taxes, Claimed 3.2B Credit
03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
But Nobody Pays That
G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether
The New York Times, March 24, 2011
General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year
in 2010.
The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1
billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.
Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2
billion.
Phi Beta Iota: This is an atrocity, a crime against humanity. Legalized crime in the US has reached heights not seen in modern history. There is no social contract between the government and those puportedlyostensibly governed. GRIFTOPIA meets Empire of Illusion. The systemic corruption of America–the Paradigms of Failure–is daunting to those who strive to serve the public interest. Integrity–one word–absent across the board. Why? Because they can get away with it.
Syrian Domino Teeters….
05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Peace IntelligenceSyria’s Bashar al-Assad faces most serious unrest of his tenure
By Leila Fadel, Thursday, March 24
Washington Post
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing the most serious unrest of his 11-year tenure Thursday as anti-government protests in a southwestern city threatened to escalate after a deadly crackdown.
. . . . . . .
On Wednesday, security forces launched a pre-dawn raid in the city in which dozens of people were killed, according to witnesses and activists. Precise estimates of the death toll range from 15 to 51.
On Thursday, witnesses said, thousands of people gathered in the city to bury the dead, chanting, “Syria! Freedom!”
Phi Beta Iota: “Freedom” is neither a partisan term, nor one that can be bought by Lockheed Martin or discounted by Goldman Sachs. Young, freedom, and the autonomous Internet. Not at all what the “elite” had planned. Most interestingly, the dominos falling to non-violent public will are in sharp contrast to the published plan of the neo-conservatives to take down the Middle East by force–nuclear if necessary.
Review: Endgame–The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror
Japan Case Study in Nuclear Information Ignorance
08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, About the Idea, Advanced Cyber/IO, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, PoliciesTime does not permit the detailed study a topic of this importance merits (it would be an excellent PhD project for a bi-lingual Japanese-English speaking PhD candidate) but here is what we do know:
1. The risks were known.
2. A tsunami risk was specificially brought up and dismissed at a critical juncture.
3. There was no “what if” planning or critical supply chain planning for contaminated water and food.
We speculate that an intense look at the information terrain surrounded Japan's nuclear and global warming and related environmental degradation and energy-commercial competitiveness discussions will yield an almost perfect understanding of where the data asymmetries and information pathologies were that allowed Industrial Era decision systems (inherently secret and corrupt) to ignore open source information on risk.
This is also a good place to study how disasters turn into catastrophes instead of remaining disasters, for lack of the proper political-legal, socio-economic, and ideo-cultural mindsets.
Fifty years from today, the catastrophe in Japan may be regarded as the moment of awakening for the global mind.
NIGHTWATCH Revolution 2.0 Round-Up
05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers CallBahrain, Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Libya
NIGHTWATCH Taliban R&R Program Under Petraeus
04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Military, Officers Call
Afghanistan: Almost 5,000 Taliban insurgents laid down their weapons or are moving toward doing so, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan General Petraeus said on 23 March. About 700 former Taliban have officially completed the steps to reintegrate into society, Petraeus said. He said another 2,000 insurgents are taking steps toward reintegration and others have laid down their weapons entirely.
Comment: The statistic is interesting because only a fraction of the anti-government fighters have reconciled to the government, based on the daily number of clashes and engagements. Most have been in northern districts where logistics support from Pakistan is barely sustainable. Petraeus also did specify the time frame for his data.
NightWatch data in November 2010 and January 2011 show the number of ralliers increased, but the number of clashes increased at a much greater rate. Several developments can explain the data. First, the anti-government forces appear to be replacing losses at a rate much faster than the rate of rallies. That can only happen if the populace supports the recruitment effort and that means the fight in Afghanistan is a Pashtun tribal uprising, not an insurgency. Second, the ralliers do not remain reconciled, but rejoin the fighting after a period of rest. The spring anti-government offensive should provide insight into the rate of recidivism. Third, the numbers are spread over such a long period as to be meaningless in evaluating the success or failure of the Coalition efforts. And there are others.
Without more context, the statement about ralliers looks like cheer leading.
Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH Taliban R&R Program Under Petraeus”
