Hacker Cinema
War Dogs
2016 · Film · 114 min
Directed by Todd Phillips
Based on the true story of two young men, David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, who won a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America's allies in Afghanistan.
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11 comments on Hacker News
The same kind of stuff happened during the Iraq war - makes the normal person feel like the regular Joe or Jane is getting a piece of the action. But in reality they just let you get a pass through %.
That movie War Dogs, while comical and inaccurate about a number of points, kinda was spot on about that one.
I honestly do not understand how the mass mobilization of the US economy for war in the 1940s actually happened or operated.
Was it bottom up, with factories competing to make products (trucks, ammo) for lend lease? Basically government used tax payer money to become a big buyer of things, incentivizing companies to reorient towards making those things? And then when the US entered the war, the types of contracts offered changed.
Was it top down, with the government operating more like a command economy telling businesses what to make, and when? It wasn't a choice, it was a demand because the country is at war!
These are two guesses I have. My mental model is based mostly on the movie "War Dogs." I'm sure it's a mix of both bottom up and top down. Maybe with a mix of cocktail parties with important industry business people and important government people chatting about would is feasible sprinkled in.
I do not understand how the war time mobilization of the US economy actually happened. If anyone knows, I would appreciate a summary or a book recommendation. I think I have a topic for my next Wikipedia deep dive.
The movie War Dogs was based on a few kids that somehow pulled it off. I think a lot has changed since... but still would be interested to learn more.
Reminds me of the film War Dogs. Great idea. Hopefully you are successful, and can cut out some of the cronyism and result in improving government program quality a bit.
It's a sort of hustler's paradise I imagine. Probably makes the "War Dogs" movie look amatuerish in retrospect. Or perhaps "American Gangster" is a more apt reference.
Oh yeah. Sorry, confused the title with War Dogs.
Definitely one of my favorites! (Both movies are)
I don't know how much Milton Friedman applies here. It's not like the government is being wantonly careless. They are investigating, after all. This is partly a consequence of the bidding process and the push to keep costs as low as possible-- there could also be a bit of crony-ism here.
These kinds of stories usually start out with some bidders putting together a killer power point deck and making a pitch, just like that LLC of TWO people that won that disastrous contract to rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid, or those guys that the movie "War Dogs" is about.
Sometimes they're upstanding folks who do a good job, sometimes they're fraudsters, sometimes they mean well but just can't deliver, sometimes they deliver but with comical cost overruns (name your favorite defense contractor).
I'm not arguing for or against Iran sanctions. However, they exist, and the US has a history of enforcing such sanctions. Getting around sanctions is typically given large punishments (see the Movie 'War Dogs'). This is not some arrest on trumped up charges for 'national security' like the Chinese arrest
The fact of the matter is that there is strong evidence that Huawei committed fraud to breach US sanctions. This is neither a 'good' or 'bad' thing, it is just very illegal.
I disagree.
Take Arms. Lets say the US has an arms embargo with a country like Iran. You would agree that it definitely is a violation (and it would be of many international treaties) to purchase US arms as a Hong Kong (replace with whatever country) firm and then resell them to Iran. Now, with computers being the next front of warfare, computer tech is treated similar to arms.
The whole movie 'War Dogs' is about people doing this with Soviet Arms, repackaging them, and selling them to the US. It was illegal, hence they got locked up at the end
since nobody mentioned already, there is an enjoyable film that was recently made about these two individuals called "War Dogs".
Off topic: I checked other FizBizOpp listings (which is now famous thanks to the War Dogs film in theaters). There is a listing for a "Big Ass Fan" 16' long for the Air Force: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=8de699e71f1dc9a084509651f2221cf3&tab=core&_cview=0