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September 18, 2003

Wouldja Like an Abrams With That?

The military has pulled a few pages from the McDonald's playbook, says Salon, handing important logistical functions over to corporations, and the result has been ruinous:

"Many of the logistical components such as modular barracks, field kitchens, and mail delivery were outsourced to private contractors. The result? Months into the war, GIs were still camped out, still eating the loathed MREs, and are still without adequate water. Mail is backlogged for weeks.

'We thought we could depend on industry to perform these kinds of functions,' Lt. Gen. Charles S. Mahan, the Army's logistical chief, told journalist David Wood in an interview for Newhouse Publications last summer. But, as Linda K. Theis, who oversees some civilian logistics contracts, reminded Wood: 'You cannot order civilians into a war zone.' Replacing 1,100 Marine cooks with civilians seemed like a bright idea to someone two years ago. But during the bloody Battle of the Bulge in 1944, Army cooks doubled as riflemen; in McArmy, civilian cooks can walk off the job."

Nothing's too good for our boys.