NYTimes Op Ed from Peter Singer on the Aegis affair. He hits the nail on the head here:
The strength of systems of democracy and capitalism are that they are supposed to be self-correcting and self-improving. When mistakes are made, lessons are learned so that the errors are not repeated. When it comes to the private military world, though, our government seems to be doing its utmost to learn nothing. It repeatedly ignores not just the basic lessons of better business, but also those of smart public policy.
Security is far from a rational market-based system. The irrationality of the process is at the core of the budget deficits the US is currently running. In this conflict, we are replicating the mistakes of the Soviet Union that led to its demise. We will spend ourselves into the ground unless we get smart. [John Robb's Weblog]