[mlyle]

Those are all situations where a commercial entity has put private funds at risk.

Most of these defense contracts that have gone way over have left the taxpayer paying for it all. In many cases, the defense contractor ends up better off because of the slip. And even very troubled programs that would have been killed in industry ages ago continue to survive.

This is what he was referring to with "But the military is *uniquely patient* when..." It's not the failure that's the problem.