I concede your point about criticism, but I hope you'll concede mine, which is that whether there is criticism or not it's embedded in the culture. People are simply afraid of it, but I take your point.
One thing that used to drive me to distraction when I was in defence was the number of change orders across the board. I blame myself and my civilian colleagues for not pushing back harder on the generals and the admirals. They always want a gold-plated solution to their problems because it protects lives, but I think even within the military, there's sort of a gentleman's and gentlewoman's understanding that, you know, if the air force wants this, the army is not going to criticize it. It's very difficult to get effective review as you work your way up the system. One of the few things that survived my time there was a committee that's now chaired, or was chaired, by Admiral Murray, which is supposed to review these kinds of things before they leave the department.
A lot of it is a desire to do good, I think, but there honestly is a lack of self-discipline on both the departmental side and the military side, in my view.