Paying homage to Ceaser

[MikeF]

If one studies the life of Jesus, one discovers that he only moved to anger on two occasions:

1. Dealing with the Pharisees
2. Dealing with the money-lenders in the Church.

Self-righteousness and greed is always a motive for corruptness. Within the military, Ike cautioned against the military-industrial complex in his fairwell speech.

Today, that complex absorbs our military from outsourcing CERP to security.

Tom Ricks broaches this point in Retired Generals get rich from conflicts of interest. (http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/11/18/retired_generals_getting_rich_from_conflicts_of_in terest) I'm indifferent to his post considering how his current employer (CNAS) encourages the same mantra from the lower ranks- write a dissertation or memoire to gain momentum and cash in on the political capital.

On the other hand, many retired generals join the board of USAA, the VFW, or the VA to affect change while compensated for their time.

Is any of this right or wrong?

Is this influence helpful or hurtful?

Many of my friends, colleagues, and classmates are involved in this mess. I've told them my personal opinions.

If you know me or have followed my thoughts on SWC, then you know that I could easily write a memoire and secure a financially-beneficial job with political influence within the Beltway and appear semi-nightly on Fox News.

Honestly, that prospect disgusts me.

What do y'all think?

[jkm_101_fso]

Reminds me of how I felt after reading this one year ago:

One Man’s Military-Industrial-Media Complex (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30general.html)

[davidbfpo]

Not sure whether this has appeared here before; an article cum interview of General Colin Powell, in September 2007:

I cite only this from a summary:
What is the greatest threat facing us now?" Powell asked. "People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. ... The only thing that can really destroy us is us. We shouldn’t do it to ourselves, and we shouldn’t use fear for political purposes—scaring people to death so they will vote for you, or scaring people to death so that we create a terror-industrial complex.

When Powell delivered a speech at the University of Oklahoma a short time later, campus reporters asked what he had meant by his remarks, and he replied:
"We're spending an enormous amount of money on homeland security, and I think we should spend whatever it takes. But I think we have to be careful that we don't get so caught up in trying to throw money at the terrorist and counter-terrorist problem that we're essentially creating an industry that will only exist as long as you keep the terrorist threat pumped up. ... Let's make sure that we are spending money on the right things and not spending money just to spend money."

Found on:http://rawstory.com/2009/10/powell-warned-of-terror-industrial-complex/

[IntelTrooper]

Has anyone seen the movie Pentagon Wars? It's a true story, and very, very sad.

[MikeF]

Count for yourself.

Scan through the entire CNAS website and see how many times that you can count that someone ends a post with RLTW.

You're count will be zero.

[Tukhachevskii]

Reminds me of what Nixon once said toward the end of the Vietnam War:

"No one can humiliate America,... only Americans can do that".

[Schmedlap]

I guess what it boils down to is this: are they doing it for pleasure, profit, or personal gain? Or are they leveraging their credibility to further some greater good? I don't have the information to make a decision one way or the other. But I am cynical and suspicious.