Dinner Time

Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's acquisition executive, met with CEOs from more than a dozen defense firms to break bread last week, the Boston Globe reports today. His message: Let's get along, OK?

I am not a believer that industry is an enemy of the government. That's how we arm ourselves in this country. We don't have a government arms industry. We buy from private industry. We can't do it without industry. I just had dinner Thursday night with the CEOs of all the top 15 defense companies and I said that to them. I want to have an open, non-antagonistic relationship where we work together. If we can align our interests so I get done what I need to do for the warfighter and the taxpayer and you get done what you need for your business. We can't always do that, but we're not always headed in opposite directions either.