i do not think that we are being snowed. i think that what we are seeing is an inability of the government to compete with the public sector. make profit a motive and the united states will solve its homeland security problem with less money and with a higher quality product.
at first blush this seem untennable. however, if the gov't sets policies, then delegates the work to private industry, we get the best of both worlds. gov't has the information to know what policies to put in place. the market place knows how to implement things as cheaply as possible while still providing a hgih quality product.
i do not think this is an either/or situation. it is letting the government do what it does best and letting the private industry do what it does best.