It can't get any
worse? If only that were true
By Molly Ivins, Star-Telegram.com
from the Web, March 5, 2006
AUSTIN -- The administration's
competence problem is already at the yadda-yadda-yadda stage. They were
supposed to protect us from terrorist attack, they said Iraq would be a
cakewalk, that we needed only 50,000 troops to maintain the country. They
failed to plan for the occupation or Hurricane Katrina or the prescription drug
plan. Yadda.
But when you look at the details of what incompetence means, it becomes both
chilling and really, really expensive. The Army announced last week that
it has decided to reimburse Halliburton for nearly all of the disputed costs in
the more than $250 million in charges that the Pentagon's own auditors had
identified as potentially excessive or unjustified.
According to the Pentagon audit agency's figures, in 2004 it withheld 75.2
percent of what auditors had recommended; last year, it was 56.4 percent.
In this case, the Pentagon wound up paying all but 3.8 percent of the disputed
costs, a figure so far outside the norm that it was noticed immediately.
Rick Barton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told The New
York Times, "To think that it's near zero is ridiculous when you're talking
these kinds of numbers."
You may recall Bunnatine Greenhouse, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers chief
contracting officer, who said the Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) contract was "the
most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of
my professional career." (Greenhouse was later demoted for her honesty.)
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said: "Halliburton gouged the taxpayer,
government auditors caught the company red-handed, yet the Pentagon ignored the
auditors and paid Halliburton hundreds of millions of dollars and a huge bonus."
In addition to costs, the Army, which blamed the excess on "haste and the perils
of war," also awarded the company additional profits and bonuses provided in the
no-bid contract.
Now comes a curious contract for KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary. It
provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to
augment existing Immigration and Customs Enforcement work. It's a
contingency contract, the contingency they have in mind apparently being "in the
event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States," as the
Halliburton news release reads.
Canadians drowning from global warming? Mexicans feeling the return of the
PRI? Ah, but the contract also specifies that the detention centers are to
"support the rapid development of new programs." New programs? Far
be it from me to speculate.
The alarmmeisters in the blogosphere, whose imaginations know no bounds, are
already positing any number of horrors. (I cannot imagine where they get
some of these far-out ideas. From reading the right-wing blogosphere?)
What surprises me is that the administration has planned for ... whatever it is
it's planning for. How forethoughtful to have something in place in case
... a lot of citizens need to be rounded up or something.
What else are these people planning for? How to get body armor to the
troops after all this time? Improved port security?
One of the problems we have here is that in order to fix a mistake, it is first
necessary to recognize that you've made one. But we're dealing with George
W. Bush. We should be getting ready for three Katrinas next year, but
first the administration would have to recognize that global warming is taking
place.
One of the most discouraging morsels of news in recent days is that Bush was so
enchanted by Michael Crichton's novel purportedly debunking global warming that
he asked Crichton to the White House to chat with him. Help! Why
can't we ever get a break? Think what would happen if the president read
The Da Vinci Code.
And so we are back to the ultimate mistake. I'm all in favor of saving
face in Iraq; they can call it Iraqification or whatever they want to.
Declare victory and go home -- fine by me. But somewhere, somehow, some
grown-ups are going to have to admit that this whole endeavor was a terrible
idea.
I'm for democracy. I'm against Saddam Hussein. I'm sorry it didn't
work out the way they wanted it to. Now let's go. Because anybody
who tells you it couldn't possibly get worse is a fool.
Molly Ivins, based in Austin, writes for Creators Syndicate.
5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045.
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