The Pentagon: Thieves, Incompetents – or both.

Bottom line - they cannot account for our money.

The United States of America was established, so legend says, by a bunch of fiercely independent settlers who were not prepared to tolerate the depredations of their English rulers – so determined to govern themselves. In support of this objective, they came up with a truly admirable document which we know as the U.S. Constitution. Fundamental to that Constitution was a deep understanding of the frailties of human nature – which were to be countered by checks and balances – and the concept of accountability.

Accountability.

The military definition of accountability is admirably clear:

“(DOD) The obligation imposed by law or lawful order or regulation on an officer or other person for keeping accurate record of property, documents, or funds. The person having this obligation may or may not have actual possession of the property, documents, or funds. Accountability is concerned primarily with records, while responsibility is concerned primarily with custody, care, and safekeeping. See also responsibility.

So much for the theory. Now read on about the practice and reflect that the Pentagon’s extraordinarily high expenditures – which they seem either incapable or unwilling to monitor - are currently putting every man, woman and child in this country ever deeper into debt. A strong military is one thing – and eminently desirable. An irresponsible military which displays scant concern for the American taxpayer is something else entirely.

The last bastion of accountability is not the Supreme Court. It is the American voter. If he or she chooses to remain ignorant and indifferent we are likely to receive a practical lesson – sooner rather than later - in how a Great Power collapses.

GAO Investigator Rips Pentagon On Iraq War Finances Boston Globe, July 15, 2005

Full accounting lacking, he says

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Congress's chief investigator yesterday blasted the Pentagon for its ''atrocious financial management," saying the Defense Department was not able to give federal oversight officials a full accounting of the $1 billion being spent each week on the war in Iraq.

''If the Department of Defense were a business, they'd be out of business," David Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, said at a breakfast with reporters yesterday.

''They have absolutely atrocious financial management."

The GAO has been examining the Pentagon's Iraq expenses, and ''we're having extreme difficulty in getting the Department of Defense to provide a full accounting of what they're spending" there, Walker said.

''I can't understand how we're spending $1 billion a week."

Walker said the money the government is spending on homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had little to do with what he called a looming budget crisis. But the Pentagon, whose work is monitored by the GAO, is not accounting for the money it is spending and is ''not doing an adequate job" of defining whether the money that is being spent is accomplishing what the government wants, he said.