Thursday, April 13, 2006

POLITICS - Plague On You!

In an article that address the issue of retired senior officers becoming military contract "advisers" ......

The problem is that these contractors are businessmen, and business is a whore. The goal of business is profit, not truth. Profit requires getting the next contract.

The plague of senior officer contractors has effectively pushed those still in the military out of the thought process. Meeting after meeting on issues of doctrine on concepts are dominated by contractors. The officers in the room know that if they wave the BS flag at the contractors, they risk angering the serving senior officers who have given their "buddies" the contract. Junior officers, who have the most direct experience with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are completely excluded. They have no chance of being heard in meetings dominated by retired generals and colonels.

Not only does contracting out thinking bring intellectual corruption, it adds a whole new layer of dinosaurism to the thought process. Most retired senior officers' minds froze in the Fulda Gap many years ago, and that remains their vision of war. Further, any change is automatically an attack on their "legacies," which they are quick to defend. Twenty years ago, once the dinosaur retired, you could push him into the tar pit and move on. Now he is back the next day in a suit, with a six-figure contract.


"Generals as Private Contractors, The Fourth Plague Hits the Pentagon" by WILLIAM S. LIND, Counter Punch

What he is pointing out is the revolving-door of senior officers becoming big money contractors whose interest is making more money, not giving good or new advice. They will always tend to give the type of "advice" that will keep getting them contracts in the future, which today means tailoring to what pleases this Whitehouse. This means that the real truth gets minimized or disappears altogether.

This Whitehouse awards those who fall into ranks and hail, "So it is said, so let it be done." And will punish anyone who dares to disagree or na-say. So, if you want another contract.......?

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