As the nominee for Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper is set to inherit
just a whole slew of US wars around the world. His long hearing at the
Senate Armed Services Committee, however, didn’t spend a lot of time
talking about wars.
Or indeed any time. Esper was faced with questions about his history as a
lobbyist for a major arms maker, and how that was going to fit in to
his potential new job. He was asked exactly zero questions about ongoing wars.
Esper assured Senators that he sees “the big picture,” and his focus was heavily on the need for the Senate to spend vastly more on weaponry for the US military, which would be his job as Defense Secretary, and largely just a scaled up version of his lobbying past.
Esper expressed support for talks with Iran, while arguing for more
military spending to prepare for potential conflicts with Russia and
China. As far as current wars, those are questions that have been left
unasked, and unanswered.
Whatever, same old same old. Like Shanahan he has zero experience in strategy, just in arms procurement, which tells you all you need to know about the true role of the DOD in this day and age, which is to keep the coffers of the arms manufacturers overflowing. War is simply a way of artifically creating more demand. simply more business as usual crony capitalism.
All true. So, why didn’t they want Shanahan? The real reason, not an excuse. It is because Shanahan is an engineer with first hand knowledge of military technology. He was very critical of F-35, expenditures, approval process, technology.
In short, with the kind of money Pentagon now has — all corporations will be selling fog of different colors, and promising fantasy weapons, with generals and Secretary of Defense being ignorant and incapable to ask right questions. Shanahan was a threat, and this is why Trump wanted him there.
But corporation have power over Congress and now we have another former employee of defense contractor up for a job. But his expertise is PUBLIC RELATIONS. He is no military weapons engineer. Many a fantasy weapon will be sold with impeccable public relations performance. Jobs, jobs, jobs — Congress chorus singing In unison. Created by the money borrowed in our name.
“But corporation have power over Congress and now we have another former employee of defense contractor up for a job.”
The key word being “another.” Shanahan spent 30 years at Boeing (as a manager, not necessarily an engineer — once he had his engineering degrees, he also got an MBA). There’s nothing less swampy about him than about whatever random military industrial complex toady follows him through the DoD/”defense contractor” revolving door.
Both SecDefs are true Americans who love money, power, violence. Exactly the reasons by the Lord blessed our country at its birth.
LOL!
I actually agree with you. The point I was making is that not all creatures of Swamp are equally qualified to reliably please the swamp. And Shanahan had flaws. Swamp will not forgive him for exposing their inner workings, as he certainly has done, with the education and experience to do it creditably. How could he be trusted by the Swamp in the situations where his knowledge of their lingo can be inconvenient?
He thought unwisely that he can badmouth their products, and not realizing he was disqualifying himself.
In other words, Swamp can afford the luxury of picking the very best — and the public relations man is a superior pick to an engineer with opinions that have opinions.
Esper said this regarding Iran: “At the same time, from the highest levels of government, from the president himself, we have said we will meet anytime, anywhere without precondition to discuss issues with the Iranians to get us on the diplomatic path,” he added.
Yes, but first we sanction you to the teeth so you are on the brink of economic devastation, surround you with military assets and threaten you with obliteration(multiple times)and then we say we’ll talk with no preconditions. And we say that with a straight face.