The Oldest Reason in the World

This is a short post on the bizarre scandal to surface in the rarefied circles of policymaking - l'affaire Petraeus. And here is my take on it - FWIW, as they say.

The story is about old fools being taken in by legends of their own stud-liness. Not only is there no greater fool than an old fool, but there is no greater vanity than that of military top brass dazzled by the shine of their own medals. And I say this with full sympathy for the army as an institution, being as I've repeated many times, an army brat myself.

Being from the culture, so to speak, may I suggest that there are other factors at work here? At the highest level, there is a lot of socializing among army officers and local civilian circles. But, while there may be respect and even adulation aplenty for rank and pomp, military groupies have been largely drawn from the rather modestly middle class ranks of those who were either raised in the military culture or have married into it.You know, the kind who can speak with breathless assurance that Gen X was, didn't you know, the Commandant of the Army War College and therefore direct in line to upstage star rival Gen. Y, who had only been CG of Fort Lewis. Rarely, does one see a rush to court the top brass with as much determination and spendy zeal as did the now-notorious Tampa socialite, Jill Kelley. Thinking about this angle brought me to consider what is the point of this post. Dear reader, I submit to you that the root cause of this civil-military scandal is the oldest reason in the world...

.....Money! Follow the military contractor trail and you will see why Gen. Petraeus was courted not, as the old fool thought, for his dazzling good looks or his sparkling wit but rather for his ability to dole out the pork barrel projects by putting in a good word in the right ears for his friendly friends in  Tampa. Jill Kelley's ex-brother-in-law is in the business of military contracting and it looks like Jill Kelley herself was trying to get into that particular scam. The last ten years have been one of continuous warfare. This has been a tremendous strain on soldiers' personal lives undeniably. In the case of senior generals though, this has given them unprecedented authority in the disbursement of government, i.e. taxpayer, moolah to all and sundry in foreign theaters of war such as Iraq and Afghanistan. A substantial amount of money is spent by the Department of Defense (DOD) in these areas and auditory oversight is not always clear. The contractor disaster that was the Iraq War is no doubt replicated in Afghanistan as well with US-based military contractors soaking the taxpayer with all sorts of overpriced food and supplies items. Such is the vaunted efficiency of the private sector. Guaranteed to suck the blood out of the taxpayer in the most efficient way possible.

But another unpleasant truth illuminated by both areas of operation is that the military top brass in the field has been given immense financial authority without much of a financial education to enable them to think things through wisely. Someone please enroll these guys in a finance class so that they understand the enormity of the sums they are handling. And so that it dawns on them that the parties to which they are invited at the homes of contractors and their relatives are, um.... how to put it without making irresistible puns?.....are business meetings. And if they are not careful, they will be sold a bill of goods.