My old friend Bryan Bender had an interesting story today in the Boston Globe on a new initiative within the Pentagon to oversee the inner workings of the Joint IED Defeat Organization.
It looks as if the Pentagon wants to get its arms around the incredible number of projects JIEDDO is working on and to better account for the billions of dollars being spent each year on countermeasures and anti-IED tactics.
(See the Pentagon Memorandum here)
The IED Task Force will be co-chaired by retired Army Lt. Gen. Paul Funk, whom Bender reports is a noted Iraq war critic. Funk commanded the 3rd Armored Division during the Gulf War and has been a semi-frequent guest on news talk shows criticizing the administrations rush to war.
Coming on the heels of reports that the White House is having a hard time finding someone to become its War Czar, it seems the administration is running out of reliable allies even to honcho top military programs.
Well see if the Task Force can help the military come to grips with the deadly counter-IED problem.
“War Czar” … oh cripes, I’m not even gonna start with THAT today. How asinine.
I do sincerely hope that General Funk can get this together and find something that offers our Troops some major increase in protection / IED avoidance — both in the short run, and perhaps even something revolutionary in the long term…
He sure has his work cut out for him… all the beaurocracy and different approaches, etc.…
What’s the point, the administration wouldn’t even listen to the War Czar… they would just ship him the blame.
Anyone remember the Iraq Study Group Recommandations ?
The biggest problem is everyone keeps thinking Iraq and Afghan are one off’s, so no one wants to do what it needed to restructure, retrain, re-equip. We now have 15 years of one off’s. Of course the ‘real threat is China’, so we must be ready, even though we lose several soldier a day from IED’s VBIED’s, morters and snipers from some insurgents. I guess they have made progress with surviving and IED, but not preventing them.
I think that is why someone is needed to take all the tasks that no one in the Pentagon and State Dept. wants to do. This is not a war, and it is not peace. A new Mission Statement for a new Era. Too bad we don’t have a new leader.
With a name like that, General Funk is a natural candidate for War Scapegoat, er, “Czar”.
I remember reading the Tunnels of Chu Chi and the DoD came up with a variety of bad ideas (sensors, sniffers, etc.), usually large/heavy/impractical and costing mucho dinero. They rushed these POS into theater and made the poor bastards try and make them work. Which they didn’t.
Same shit here for the most part.
this war czar thing is foolish. apparently the prez doesnt know that HE IS THE WAR CAZR. you know that whole commander and chief thing?!?! i guess they are just looking for a way to lay the blame on someone else.
BT, that’s the smartest comment I’ve seen all week, on any blog. IED’s work, therefore US (land) forces will encounter them again. I’d only add that whatever workable sensor set-ups are developed will probaly be useful for other things, as well.
JIEDDO is nothing more than a Defense contractors dream — an unaccountable big-black spending hole with a big budget that has zero oversight…not to mention everything is classified, so the general public has no idea how much waste, fraud, and abuse exists.
My guess — by the end of August the National Debt will be upwards of 9 trillion dollars, and Congress will have to modify the debt ceiling for the 3rd or 4th time since Bush has been in office.
Our Treasury is nearly bankrupt.
Everyone,
We have come up with the “silver bullet” solution to defeating the deadly IED. The technology is already here and has been here for the past 50 years.
The JIEDDO has spent around $6B to have big defense contractors find a solution to no avail. We have the solution, and it will cost JIEDDO only $10M (measly dollars) for a test program to prove that the technology works. We have a patent pending on the solution. We also have six white papers in JIEDDO being evaluated.
More of our warfighters are dying every day by exploding IEDs. Yet, we have yet to receive a measly contract to get this solution verified and validated so we can employ in in Iraq in a matter of weeks. Why is it taking so long for the JIEDDO to invest peanuts to prove out our solution?
BTU
To BTU:
If you possess the all-encompassing solution (i.e. the “silver bullet”) to solving ALL of the issues related to IEDs, why haven’t you been able to market such technology to the other Multi-National Forces in Iraq (MNC-I) such as the UK and the Canadians? Much of our technology is shared with our coalition partners. I find it interesting (or possibly suspect) that we haven’t seen your “silver bullet.” More importantly, have you explored other US avenues like DARPA, Night Vision Labs, NSA, DIA, DHS and others? If the technology which you tout is so effective, I find it hard to understand why you have not proceeded in pursuing these other like-minded OGAs.
Please feel free to elaborate.
Curiously,
Tyler Butler
In Ref: September 5, 2007
We have come up with the “silver bullet” solution to defeating the deadly IED. The technology is already here and has been here for the past 50 years.
The JIEDDO has spent around $6B to have big defense contractors find a solution to no avail. We have the solution, and it will cost JIEDDO only $10M (measly dollars) for a test program to prove that the technology works. We have a patent pending on the solution. We also have six white papers in JIEDDO being evaluated.
More of our warfighters are dying every day by exploding IEDs. Yet, we have yet to receive a measly contract to get this solution verified and validated so we can employ in in Iraq in a matter of weeks. Why is it taking so long for the JIEDDO to invest peanuts to prove out our solution?
BTU
I am interested in hearing about this program you say you have awaiting approval. I’m in a position currently that my find your program useful to the troops OCONUS. Please contact me ASAP. Thank you
As CCO over here in Afghanistan, you would not believe what has recently flown across my desk with the funding of JIEDDO backing it. Can’t get into specifics, but lets just say government funding (Title 10 funding) for a form of unproven PSY-OP entertainment purposes directed to the Afghan population seems illegal as hell and could be chalked up to fraud, waste, and abuse.
This organization needs some big time over sight, and it sounds like the GAO is in the process to have oversight implemented.
It is all a scam. A few grunts need to die to continue funding. No blown up grunts = NO Billions to steal. I can easily stop IEDs, terrorism, Hijacking and higher energy prices.
“War is a Racket” ~ U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler
All through history fools & tools died for the benefit of the elites.
*Just my opinion