By Horatio Green
 |
Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, left,
visits
with former Army Vice-Chief of Staff Gen. Jack Keane
during a Defense Policy
Board meeting at the Pentagon
on Tuesday, Nov.29, 2011: DOD photo by Glenn
Fawcett:
Flickr Creative Commons, license Attribution 2.0 Generic
|
Nation
Magazine’s Lee Fang provides enlightening, yet not surprising insights into
the cable news reporting on the ISIS threat. He writes that some retired
generals and other military experts promoting military action against the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) stand to gain financially from it.
They “… have
skin in the game as paid directors and advisers to some of the largest military
contractors in the world,” which the news’ programs don’t disclose.
Fang particularly targets retired generals Jack Keane,
Anthony Zinni, and former Department of Homeland Security official Frances
Townsend.
Keane is a special adviser to Academi, a private American military
company formerly known as Blackwater; a board member to tank and aircraft manufacturer General
Dynamics; a “venture
partner” to SCP Partners, an investment firm that partners with defense
contractors, including XVionics,
an “operations management decision support system” company used in Air
Force drone training.
Zinni is a board member to BAE
Systems' US subsidiary, and works for several military-focused
private equity firms.
Townsend “holds positions in two investment firms with
defense company holdings, MacAndrews
& Forbes and Monument
Capital Group, and serves as an advisor to defense contractor Decision Sciences.”
Moreover, any military spending, including supplies of arms
and equipment amounts to substantial profit, not only for the defense industry but
also for the complicated network of contracts and contractors that support the
industry.
Just think what state these industries would be in if military
action, support, and the supply of arms and equipment to the Middle Eastern
countries would end.
Just imagine the great benefit that would be derived if it
did end, and instead all of those dollars spent at home for the wellbeing of
Americans, their education, and our country’s infrastructure.
The Pentagon, homeland security, and war industries are the
greatest threat to our security, and they are a huge impediment to achieving
peace and stability, not ISIS.
Copyright © 2014 Horatio Green
