Just Who Is Running This Country?

Hilzoy makes a point that no one else seems to have caught in the latest Halliburton/KBR scandal:

In fact, KBR did at one point threaten to stop providing basic supplies -- little things like food -- to our troops in Iraq. (I've put the account of this episode below the fold.) What that means is, to my mind, even more scandalous than simple corruption by a company with good connections. It means that we have outsourced absolutely critical functions to private companies, companies which, unlike military personnel, can threaten to stop doing their jobs without facing courts-martial. In wartime, when a company is doing something as important as providing food to our troops, the military has no choice but to cave to their demands. (That's one reason I said it was more scandalous than simple corruption: it virtually ensures that that corruption will occur, while simultanously leaving our troops at risk.)

I'd put it in stronger terms: the Bush administration has abdicated the government's responsibilities to ensure the uninterrupted provision of basic necessities to the ground troops and handed to a private and completely unaccountable corporation the power to dictate under what conditions the war will be fought. (And if you don't think feeding the troops is a "condition," guess again.) I, like Hilzoy, find this completely unacceptable. She's written a good post on it: go read it, because I don't really have much to add, and I don't have time this week anyway.