The latest member to the exclusive get rich club is General Mattis who will get rich at the expense of the US Military. The question is should former US military Generals not be held to higher standard than to sell out trade secrets to the military industrial complex? Certainly after reading this article it suggests that Former Military Generals are now working in tandem to protect the interests of private companies at the expense of the tax payer, thus creating a serious conflict of interest in the name of national security by becoming lobbyists in DC. What do you think?
This was the link I originally posted! “The American Conservative” I am not sure why KVN and Patriot wants to change it to the Zero Hedge link. I personally don’t give Zero hedge much credence to their reporting but take it with a grain of salt, and I certainly wouldn’t post them here!
You might remember – I posted a paragraph over at the shithole back in the summer of 17 stating I had asked both my retired colonel cousens why so many retired general officers were supporting the hildabeast. They are opposite sides of the family and have never met but gave very similar answers. They both stated that many high ranking officers were nothing than career seeking bureaucrats. They started out good but in time had turned in to bureaucrats who didn’t give a rats ass about the troops but were concerned mainly with career and financial gain.
I have been disappointed in mattis and kelly, but not surprised.
The “shithole”! Ha ha! Funny! It certainly has devolved into that!
Anyway, yes you are correct! We are missing real leaders who are committed to upholding the constitution and serving their country first! The private industry of the military RD has and is creating some real problems that not only is comprising our security as a country but serves as a mechanism to fleece the tax payer! I know because I seen the Tax payers dollars at work with my own eyes! Things like “T Walls” cement barriers which should only cost at minimum less than 1000 dollars to build, were charging the military 10,000 a piece in Iraq! Highway robbery!
Yes Mattis was a disappointment, and Trump fired him because of Afghanistan and his leadership in that regard particularly failing to produce a definitive strategy for getting our troops out of that shithole and wasting billions of dollars to remain there where Mattis just wanted to keep the status quo was just giving lip service to Trump! Well Guess what? Trump being the CEO that he is was having none of it!
As for Kelly, I personally liked Kelly, he was a stabilising force in the white House and got everyone in line to stop the leaks. I think where he fked up is his stance on the border wall issue and his cozy relationship with Nielsen was going against Trump by giving bad advice and not leading the charge! If you remember correctly a few months ago he was more concerned about what he was eating for breakfast then putting on a good face when Trump and team were in Europe meeting with the NATO leadership where he called them out for their BS spending!
I think Sarge you and my Brother would get along really great, he pretty much said the same to me as you articulated just this morning! He is the only Marine in our family as we have always been Airforce and Army!
I think it’s less about the trade secrets andore about the relationships. They did favors for subordinates they groomed and in turn those subordinates respond with deals and business. The cycle just repeats and repeats.
At the same time they are the most informed and educated people we have in the country with respect to what the military has and what it needs for the future.
If we can’t trust them to make sound decisions working in the defense industry how can we trust them to make sound judgements when they are leading thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of troops where every decision they make can potentially cost them their lives?
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t purport to know where the lines should be drawn but I do know that excluding them from working in the industry after retirement would also come at a heavy cost.
I’m pretty sure the federal government puts all sorts of limits on what people can do when they stop working for Uncle Sam. I think if it sounds wrong then it probably is wrong and there are probably some ethics violations.
You’re making a lot of baseless assumptions there. There is no legal or ethical violation in military members going to work in the defense industry after retirement or at the end of their tours of duty.
Do you even bother reading the fking article before commenting? Seriously! Either you mentally challenged or you are just coming here to ad your opinion that isn’t rooted in anything it’s just an opinion! You know what they say about opinions right?
It is definitely not anything about secrets. A DoD security clearance, of any level, is an agreement for life, unless you are Hillary. I am not talking out my ass either, I was an FSO for over 15 years.
Generals are hired for several reasons by the Big Contractors:
If they call anyone in DOD or DC (except for the President) the phone gets answered.
They know exactly who to call as the key pivot point, or who to ask for the name of that person. This extends overseas for Foreign Military Sales.
They get invited to conferences and social gatherings where current generals and decision makers are also going, they get face to face access.
I have met several of these men (yes they were all men) over the years at corporate strategy meetings, conferences, and BIG proposal reviews.
You are correct. The bigger issue though is the lobbying where sometimes information that is confidential gets sold on a promise for favors. It isn’t necessarily Secrets but information about a certain project in development that is suppose to be confidential gets whispered into existence by giving hints. Anyway, the latter is rather subjective and this is more to do with the private companies in the R&D and their lobbying agenda that fleeces the the Tax Payer.
It’s a one sided “Bash Mattis” hit piece and not particularly cleaver or original side swipe at Trump’s appointees and the whole “military industrial complex”.
For the most part it’s the same crap we’ve heard regurgitated for decades with Mattis as the focal point.
Your inputs here don’t deserve this, but here goes:
Wonky as it’s technological advancement is, we have the greatest military in the world.
It is way the hell more efficient, and more importantly EFFECTIVE than the welfare state, ecomarxist-driven regulatory agencies, and bankrupt healthcare and Social Security systems which all are miserably inefficient.
Actually you are making an assumption about me and what I know and what I don’t know. No I am not speculating as I was a former Defense contractor and a Military Intelligence officer who served in three different theaters and have worked in the private sector including being in Iraq in both Operation Desert Storm and OIF. So yeah I do know what I am saying because I too have seen it with my own eyes and ears.
Not sure what getting my crap together is all about, but I leave that up to you to chew on for awhile. I make no assumptions about anyone here, just what is provided in terms of context.
Yeah I am not sure I entirely agree about the efficient part, greatest Military in the world maybe, I will agree, but if China keeps stealing our tech it won’t be for long. Oh and the sledge hammer approach eventually is going to be its Achilles heel, its costly, not a good use of resources by efficiency standards. Also where its lacking is its cyber security where breaches happen on a daily basis and this also is becoming the main focus for future warfare.
I wasn’t just a VET, I was a private contractor too. My entire family are DOD contractors as well. Have a sister currently in Afghanistan as a private contractor in IT.