I'm sorry to bust your bubble on this one, but this has nothing to do with Bush or Republicans or anything else. War profiteering has been with us from the beginning, and it has nothing to do with politics; I'm sure every government involved has made what it feels is a sincere effort to control it. It is all about greed. The "greatest generation" did it in World War II, as has every other generation all the way back to Pharaoh's time. The Cold War and Vietnam were notrious for it, and I'm sure every other war administration, past, present or future is equally guilty. Even peacetime battles, like the Katrina debacle, are not immune. If it makes you feel any better, the people we fight are plagued with the same situation as well. I'm sure half the money contributed to Al-Quaeda and its allies winds up making the payments on someone's Mercedes or as tuition payments to a prestigious Western University for somebody's kid.

I think what is different today is that the conservative fawning admiration for anything entrepreneurial interprets any control or regulation of any private enterprise as creeping collectivism, and that the congenital need to identify with and promote the business community, and the deep ties betwen that community and government officials, makes it almost inevitable, regardless of the honesty of individuals involved. Military officials have long recognized this, and have always endeavored to provide their own funding for vital support functions, but since logistics is what really matters in warfare, not tactics, strategy or technology, the temptation to cut costs by outsourcing all non-combatant operations is always strong, and there is no shortage of hungry players eager to take part.

The sad thing is that this graft isn't necessarily deliberate criminality. It often results from the sheer nature of the system, the dynamic that is introduced by the large amounts of cash and the great urgency involved. Everyone is just trying to do their job, and their job is to make money for their company. Even scrupulously honest individuals get swept up in the avalanche. It's just part of the friction and fog of war, along with friendly fire, collateral damage, and general waste.