I have
been writing for well over a year that the
"fix" appears to be in, to give the crucial air tanker
contract to an
inferior Boeing product. Well, now the entire Alabama
delegation to Congress
seems to agree. Calling many aspects of the new Pentagon
Request for PRoposal "unconscionable," the senators and Reps say
that it does not put the needs ofour airmen first. A particularly
sharp line: "This approach makes a mockery of the capability that
our warfighters truly value where, for example, water flow in the
toilet has [effectively but terribly unwisely been given by the
Pentagon] equal importance to fuel flow in the refueling boom."
The Alabama delegation is right. I think Secretary Gates and
company are guilty of some sort of malfeasance -- not necessarily
anything illegal, but morally, ethically, operationally, and
logically. They seem more worried about sucking up to Boeing's
political might than they do about best serving the airmen whose
lives will be on the line.
For shame.
