Rumsfeld's Last Day- 6 years too late. His next career move: Lurking in the shadows with Kissinger
Today is Rumsfeld's last day at the Pentagon. For Rumsfeld Invaders, it is the end of an era. Like when Jerry Rice retired from the 49ers. Except way, way better for the country and the world. Apologies to Jerry Rice, he does not deserve to be compared to Rumsfeld. The only person who really deserves that is Henry Kissinger.
Is Rumsfeld really going away? Or is he just changing jobs. Until he publicly repents and repudiates his positions of the last 6 years, and those of the military-industrial-empire complex of the last 50, he will still pose a threat to the possibility of world peace. Like Henry Kissinger, he will cling to beliefs which make sense only to him, while the rest of the world has weighed the evidence, drawn the obvious conclusions, and tried to move on (as I thought we had after Vietnam).
I read on another blog that the U.S. is spending around $200 billion a year to fight less than 5,000 jihadi-type terrorists and their worldwide network of supporters. This works out “to roughly $40 million per year, per terrorist." That doesn't even account for the money spent to employ people to take my toothpaste and my shaving cream away from me (which really pissed me off), and my hair gel when I'm trying to get on a plane. Is the country safer because my hair is sticking up? These people see every American citizen as a potential threat to empire, and want to anally probe grandmothers in public. They are sick people and need therapy, not jobs at the airport. I'll look for an accounting of how much money is wasted by Homleand Paranoia and get back to you. The money is spent only to ensure that more money gets spent. The purpose of spending this money is so that more money must follow down the rat hole. Hegelian economics: Thesis-Antithesis. War-Insurgency-counterIntersurgency-countercounterInsurgency. Homeland Security-Paranoia.
What we need is Hegelian economics for good: Sustainability-The Commons-Social justice- education- Water quality for all- economics as if people mattered- investing in human capital- peace dividends. This money would follow more money and the more money invested in these things, the more money would continue to be invested.
The Homeland is not secure when the military is halfway around the world, violating human rights, and inflicting civilian collateral damage on a daily basis in order to steal oil out from under the Middle East. It is another reprise for White Man's Burden and Manifest Destiny. Our missionaries are in fatigues and driving Hummers, but it's the Crusades of the Middle Ages all over again, and the flashy graphics of television and the Internet can't mask the Iraq War's basic nature.
Rumsfeld's next career move: Lurking in the Shadows with Henry Kissinger. He already has the veneer of Rasputin. So, Rumsfeld Invaders isn't going away. We've still got a mess to clean up.
Congratulations, Rumsfeld, on instigating Jihad versus McWorld. Your legacy will be proving Benjamin Barber right.
posted by MC Sandlerbrau at 10:06 AM
1 Comments:
There are good points in your article. I would like to supplement them with some information:
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
If you are interested in a view of the inside of the Pentagon procurement process from Vietnam to Iraq please check the posting at my blog entitled, “Odyssey of Armaments”
http://www.rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com
The Pentagon is a giant, incredibly complex establishment, budgeted in excess of $500B per year. The Rumsfelds, the Administrations and the Congressmen come and go but the real machinery of policy and procurement keeps grinding away, presenting the politicos who arrive with detail and alternatives slanted to perpetuate itself.
How can any newcomer, be he a President, a Congressman or even the new Sec. Def.Mr. Gates, understand such complexity, particularly if heretofore he has not had the clearance to get the full details?
Answer- he can’t. Therefore he accepts the alternatives provided by the career establishment that never goes away and he hopes he makes the right choices. Or he is influenced by a lobbyist or two representing companies in his district or special interest groups.
From a practical standpoint, policy and war decisions are made far below the levels of the talking heads who take the heat or the credit for the results.
This situation is unfortunate but it is absolute fact. Take it from one who has been to war and worked in the establishment.
This giant policy making and war machine will eventually come apart and have to be put back together to operate smaller, leaner and on less fuel. But that won’t happen until it hits a brick wall at high speed.
We will then have to run a Volkswagen instead of a Caddy and get along somehow. We better start practicing now and get off our high horse. Our golden aura in the world is beginning to dull from arrogance.
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