Watching our national dialogue over the last month reminds me of serving in West Germany at the height of the Cold War. U.S. Army Europe was then an institution beset with racism, indiscipline, and chronic shortages of everything except drugs and alcohol. During the Yom Kippur War of 1973, our most critical munitions were airlifted to Israel as emergency reinforcements; meanwhile we faced our Russian counterparts across a zone of confrontation that increasingly approximated wartime. Somehow that crisis passed without overt hostilities: But as an impressionable junior officer, I often wondered when, how or even if these matters would ever be set right.

For different reasons, I wonder those same things today, listening to alleged national leaders - who really should know better - opining about Elon Musk as an unelected strongman intent on monopolizing power to enrich himself and his billionaire friends. Since an appalling number of these folks are Democratic senators and congressmen, one wonders if they recall their high-school civics classes about the basic structure of our government. Remember those quaint half-forgotten lessons about electing a President through the Electoral College and then allowing his closest advisors to be chosen with the Advice and Consent of the Senate? Well, then please explain the sheer idiocy of demonstrators taking to the streets and charging Donald Trump with new illegalities and even plane crashes! Haven’t we heard these same absurdities before, entered during various pleadings before the Superior Democratic Courts of Lawfare and Civil Injustice?

The irony is that Messrs. Trump & Musk are merely conducting a long overdue audit of such books, documents, archives and other records by which your government ensures the bottom-line integrity of the vast sums spent on behalf of We the People. One can almost hear sundry Democrats frantically raising points of order to insist that such responsibilities are limited solely to the oversight committees of Congress. Wanna bet? In fact, both the Executive and Legislative branches routinely empanel blue-ribbon panels, like the special commission on defense procurement headed by David Packard in the 1980’s. Since Elon Musk as head of DOGE is similarly appointed under the direct authority of President Trump, what’s the big deal?

It is part of the Washington mystique that special bodies like the Packard Commission and DOGE seldom succeed on their first attempt at solving intractable governmental problems. Not many years after the Packard Commission adjourned, I found myself dragooned into serving as staff director for a Congressionally-appointed panel charged with reforming the nation’s defense procurement laws. Our first task proved especially daunting: Exactly how many laws affected defense procurement? Shockingly, it turned out that the Section of Law appointing our panel and the number of laws under our jurisdiction both equaled 800! Pity those poor procurement creatures trying to do their best but having to contend with 800 laws? How could they finish the day without violating several statues – and God only knew how many “implementing regulations” (on average, at least 3 regs for each one of our 800 laws).

Our completed report took over two years, several squads of lawyers and the incisive leadership of the experts heading our panel (e.g., Whit Peters, senior partner at Williams and Connolly and later 17^th Secretary of the Air Force). But one of my main tasks was illustrating the need for reform; specifically, why this large body of laws had been passed individually but without ever being assessed for their overall strategic value as integral components of the nation’s defenses. Our best case emerged in the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, when the Air Force needed to procure commercial radio receivers. Although the manufacturer of that unit was Motorola, the only branch of Motorola allowed to sell to the government (with its 800 laws and countless regs) was Motorola Government Systems. Naturally, both elements of the corporation were carefully walled off from one another – thus creating an impasse as war drew nearer each day.

Some suggested seeking waiver authority from Congress, at best a long and difficult process. At the last possible moment, a USAF Lieutenant Colonel came up with the inspired solution that was quickly seized upon by his profoundly relieved superiors. The Japanese Government was persuaded to purchase the Motorola commercial radio receivers, to donate them to the Air Force and then to write-off the cost as part of Japan’s contribution to the Desert Storm war effort!

Bottom Lines:

· ***When allies are required to act as rescuers from your self-imposed procurement nightmares, then wider reforms are essential.

· **** Donald & Elon: Go for broke, you guys!

COL (Ret.) Kenneth Allard is a former draftee who became a West Point professor, Dean of the National War College and NBC News military analyst.