Incompetence beyond belief

[fizzana]

This story was posted a couple of days ago but bears repeating. It clearly illustrates the unbelievable level of incompetence that is costing both lives and multiple billions of dollars in Iraq.

"When the technological history of Gulf War II is written, will it be concluded that Iraq was lost for want of a decent cell-phone network?"

<snip>

In mid-May, the Pentagon, without going through any of the normal bidding procedures, awarded a $45 million contract to WorldCom/MCI to build a cellular network. The award prompted much grumbling among industry insiders, since that company—besides having just settled the largest financial fraud case in American business—had no prior experience at building cellular networks. (For a while, MCI had resold AT&T wireless carriers within the United States, but it had recently dropped even that line.)

<snip>

The U.S. reconstruction officials in Baghdad could not even talk with U.S. military officers down the street. The Army had, in June, contracted Motorola to create a separate network for security forces.

According to a Defense Department official, if someone working for the U.S. occupation authority needed to talk with a battalion commander, there was no way to make direct contact. He or she had to call a desk officer back in the Pentagon, who would jot down the message and call the commander himself. If the commander wanted to reply to the message, the same desk officer would jot down the response and call back the occupation authority.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2088620/

The biggest joke is that this was supposed to be the CEO administration that would do everything right.

[cliss]

1. How true.

I think BushInc really did have an advantage because they came from the business world. After all, businessmen are prudent, they mind their P's and Q's.

In the planning stages of the war, they seemed to know what they were doing. That's why I think it came as a shock to everyone that things started falling apart very quickly after "mission accomplished".

The truth started trickling out. They hadn't planned for after the war. Nada, zip, NO PLANS. That's when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall; they could not redeem themselves after that.

So one asks the most obvious question: why didn't they plan anything? They're not mentally retarded, they're obviously not stupid since they've gotten us this far.

The answer is: they felt there was no need to. All of their efforts had gone into planning everything AHEAD of the war, and afterwards Iraq would be theirs, and they would start pumping the oil full blast, and the oil revenues would start to take care of the massive debt that was incurred.

The one thing they did not plan on was PEOPLE. There are 22 million people living on top of that $3 trillion dollar treasure.

So much for businessmen.

[stopbush]

2. Businessmen?

Cliss sez "I think BushInc really did have an advantage because they came from the business world. After all, businessmen are prudent, they mind their P's and Q's."

Yes, GOOD not-just-in-it-for-myself businessmen think thay way. Small businessmen tend to be prudent because it's actually their money that's being spent.

But "businessmen" like bush and cheney? Give me a break! These are guys who have NEVER been successful at any business tried or have dealt only in businesses that ultimately deal in death, respectively. How about the Worldcom and Adelphia guys? How about Mr GE, Jack Welch? How about this WEEK's example of prudency at the NYSE? Crooks, all of them. How about Kenny Boy - fucked his employees and is still wandering the lost world of the jet set on his ill-gotten gains. These are people who will happily spend/waste everyone else's money (be it 401ks, taxes, or investor $) while first insuring that their bank account is obscenely healthy. Pathetic.

So, bush has an Ivy League MBA in his pocket. What's that stand for, Major Bullshit Artist?

But then, we live in a country where the majority of the population thinks The Invisible Sky Being is going to bail them out of their worldly troubles (if not in this life, then when they're finally toast), where the majority of the population believes in fucking GHOSTS, fer Jeebus sake! A country that believes there's actually a lib'rul media out there conspiring to kill America, but won't believe that the bushies are currently busy trying to assassinate the elected leader of Venezuela ("we don't do conspiracies in this country").

So, it's no wonder that most Americans believe in the myth of the prudent businessman.

Face it - they didn't have a plan going in, they didn't have a plan for the occupation, and they never even envisioned an exit strategy because they never intended to leave. All they had were LIES. The LIES are now biting them in the ass. They are the typical schoolyard bully who gets his nose bloodied and cries to Mama.

Fuck them.

[Karenina]

5. Major Bullshit Artist

Methinks you've hit the nail on the head!

[fizzana]

8. People like Bush and Cheney might have been CEOs but

it wasn't because of their business expertise. Their value as CEO's or executives was only due to their connections in government so they could grease the skids for fat government contracts. They are no more capable of running companies than the average McDonald's burger flipper.

[aquart]

9. A good planning stage would include the 22 million people.

Really.

[aneerkoinos]

3. US knowhow

in cell-phone networks is embarrasment. Should have asked Nokia, Ericsson or the Japanese. They can only blame themselves.

[ShaneGR]

4. That's weird

Any vets here from Vietnam who could lend us some knowledge on communications capability during that war?

[Tatiana]

6. No surprise here.

Despite the view of this as a "CEO Administration," we've got the one of the worst CEOs, with one of the worst track records as a businessman, calling himself President. Everything Dumbya touched as a businessman was a failure, so this news should be no surprise.

Every morning I wake up, I try to convince myself that I don't live in a Banana Republic.

[maggrwaggr]

7. in the business world, you can get fired

and apparently if you're president, you can't.

What luck for an incompetent businessman like Shrub