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4. Was the Air Force High?

In the heated competition between Boeing (BA Quote) and the team of Northrop Grumman (NOC Quote) and Airbus parent -- European Aeronautic Defense and Space -- the Air Force has proved a lousy referee.

Thanks to the Air Force's incompetence, Boeing got a second chance at a contract to supply the Pentagon with tanker planes that allow for midair refueling.

The military had previously awarded the tanker contract, worth $35 billion and the first in a series of deals potentially worth $100 billion, to Northrop and European Aeronautic Defense and Space. Boeing had grown accustomed to landing cushy government contracts, in part, because of a proud, longstanding U.S. tradition of keeping its weapons manufacturing on home soil. Boeing complained grumpily when the Air Force chose the Northrop-EADS team, which will build the planes' frames in Toulouse, France, then put on the finishing touches in Mobile, Ala.

Boeing scored a minor victory, then, when the Government Accountability Office last month said the Air Force's selection process contained "significant errors," including failure to address the minor question of whether the Northrop-EADS tanker would be capable of refueling all of the Air Force's planes.

The reopening of the tanker bid marks a further delay in replacing the Air Force's old tankers, which date back to the Eisenhower era. The military has been seeking new refueling planes since 2001.

Meanwhile, the armed forces carry out operations in Iraq and Afghanistan while Air Force pilots buzz around in junkers that are as old as their parents.

Dumb-o-meter score: 75. With any luck, the U.S. will still have some enemies to fight by the time someone lands this contract.