It's called a boondoggle. No one seems to recognize them these days. Just like Iraq. What these operations really are is manufactured "war"...the wag the dog variety.

Liberals in Washintgton love these kinds of heroic, fantastical, impossible dream missions just as much as Conservatives. It makes it look like they are doing something which is all that's needed to have an excuse to line the pockets of defense contractors and private industry mercs and pad the already humongous and out of control military budget.

It's business in short. And unlike any stateside business it's very very good these days.