Overseas base contractors sustain self-perpetuating waste on a staggering scale

Evidence

As the FOB2012 conference neared its end, I asked another conference participant (who requested that I not use his name) whether during his wartime deployments in Iraq he had seen the problem Major Elliott had described—a base with private security guards doing nothing but protecting privately contracted cooks who were doing nothing but cooking for those same private security guards. … “A lot,” he replied. It’s the “self-licking ice cream cone”—by which he meant a self-perpetuating system with no purpose or function except to keep itself going. … “I sat with my ice cream and my prime rib on Sundays” in Iraq, he continued. It’s been this way since 2001, maybe even since Kosovo. There’s been lots of waste and inefficiency. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 732

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the private-contractor incentive structures familiar from modern military logistics and the broader literature on bases as self-sustaining institutions.
• SHARE: The ‘self-licking ice cream cone’ anecdote is perfect for anyone who studies military contracting, defense logistics, or organizational dysfunction.