So wrong, on so many levels...

... and so typical of W's "MBA Presidency"!

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Arms for Afghans
By C. J. CHIVERS, NYT
Published: March 27, 2008
This article was reported by C. J. Chivers, Eric Schmitt and Nicholas Wood and written by Mr. Chivers.
Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.

... and it just goes down-hill from here.

You won't be ready for this, I promise.

With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.

Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed.
[emphasis added]

Yep - we're supplying our Afghan allies with 40-year-old munitions from the former Communist bloc, which have been determined to be "unreliable and obsolete".

... Provided by a company whose 22-year-old leader figured it would just be cool to get into the international arms trade.

It gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective):

In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking.

Moreover, tens of millions of the rifle and machine-gun cartridges were manufactured in China, making their procurement a possible violation of American law.
[emphasis added]

"How could this happen?" you ask.

Here's where W's gutting of basic government capability comes into play:

AEY is one of many previously unknown defense companies to have thrived since 2003, when the Pentagon began dispensing billions of dollars to train and equip indigenous forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its rise from obscurity once seemed to make it a successful example of the Bush administration’s promotion of private contractors as integral elements of war-fighting strategy.

But an examination of AEY’s background, through interviews in several countries, reviews of confidential government documents and the examination of some of the ammunition, suggests that Army contracting officials, under pressure to arm Afghan troops, allowed an immature company to enter the murky world of international arms dealing on the Pentagon’s behalf — and did so with minimal vetting and through a vaguely written contract with few restrictions.
[emphasis added]

Yes, folks, we awarded a $300,000,000 arms contract to a start-up company, and provided no oversight!

I think I have a solution to current economic problems: let's all get U.S. Government contracts! Heck, you can get millions from DoD alone! - No experience necessary. No one will notice! No one will care!!!

Proposal:

Every American on unemployment to be awarded a $100,000 contract from DoD.

It doesn't matter what the contract is for: all the unemployed will now have 6-figure incomes! Republicans don't like the idea of welfare, but they apparently don't mind handing out multi-million dollar defense contracts to anyone who can draw a breath.

It's becoming more and more obvious that W's business failures weren't an aberration. He truly is clueless about business. Can Harvard rescind that MBA?

Republicans - following St. Reagan - continue to proclaim that Government is never the solution. Then, when they get into positions of power, they proceed to demonstrate Government's ineptitude - a very nice self-fulfilling prophecy!

I suppose folks with Harvard MBAs don't see the point of writing basic controls into contracts. You know, little provisions that provide some assurance that we'll get what we pay for, and that we won't be charged exhorbitantly for products & services provided.

My bet is that Circle K has better, more reliable procurement systems, with much tighter & more effective financial controls!

Why couldn't we have contracted with American munitions manufacturers to produce ammo for the Afghans? This would have provided jobs for Americans, promoted industrial development,... and, last but not least - actually given the Afghans decent bullets!

How are our Afghan allies taking this?

“This is what they give us for the fighting,” said the colonel, Amanuddin, who like many Afghans has only one name. “It makes us worried, because too much of it is junk.” Ammunition as it ages over decades often becomes less powerful, reliable and accurate.
[emphasis added]

Where else are the hundreds of billions of dollars we spend on defense being thrown away?

Stop the madness!