Originally Posted by Seaver

There is a reason there is a no-bid contract on this, because no other company has the experience that Haliburton has in supplying our troops. What you don't understand is although expensive, Haliburton supplies, and DELIVERS, required equipment and supplies our troops require... and they require a lot.

This isn't simple economics, in simple economics if an item is not delivered costs run up and the project gets delayed. If these items are not delivered people die. Personally I'd rather pay the extra money to ensure that does not happen. Haliburton is an ENORMOUS company which has proved reliable in supplying our military for years.

And the usage of the analogy of the $600 toilet seat shows how the critics do not fully realize the military equipment bureacracy. It was not a simple plastic toilet seat lid which cost $600, it was an entire toilet for a B-52 bomber. What makes this $600? Well it required multiple pressure chambers, all immune to corrosion caused by waste, so that when a pilot (in a pressurized cabin) sat and defacated his bowels were not pulled from his body. It had to be reinforced so that an exposed and thus weakened part of the fuselage was not an Achillies heel, nevermind the paper thin aluminum shell in the rest of the aircraft. So you can see that after passing all these Colonels and Generals the price of the toilet could skyrocket, nevermind the fact that the limitted number which would be produced would inherantly drive up costs.

Apply this formula to Iraq, where you have to drive across a county the size of Texas full of people who purposefully target these convoys. These drivers are not military personell, so to volunteer for this job ENORMOUS sums of money are thrown at them... extend that money for training. Then, because the military can not provide adequate defenses for every convoy, hire at great costs ex-military mercenaries... which get expensive fast. Then realize that you're providing everything from toothpics to bullets to over 100k people who need these items daily.

Yes, it's expensive. Every war in history has been expensive. However this Haliburton hate is unfounded, the company has served plenty of Presidents in the past and has a proven record which very few if any companies can boast.

... Just be glad the people who are doing the Big Dig didn't get the job...