tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8629285072965859682.post3255592039886635163..comments2024-03-29T03:37:43.444-07:00Comments on Revelations: U.S. Recruits Worldwide For Afghan Warwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434314871274401386noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8629285072965859682.post-37306436845217149102016-12-19T00:16:41.347-08:002016-12-19T00:16:41.347-08:00michael kors outlet online
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I...Afghanistan is symptom of a much larger problem<br /><br />I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 misguided years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.<br /><br />The Department of Defense, headquartered in the Pentagon, is one of the most massive organizations on the planet, with net annual operating costs of $635 billion, assets worth $1.3 trillion, liabilities of $1.9 trillion and more that 2.9 million military and civilian personnel. It is difficult to convey the complexity of the way DOD works to someone who has not experienced it. This is a massive machine with so many departments and so much bureaucracy that no president, including Obama totally understands it.<br /><br />Presidents, Congressmen, Cabinet Members and Appointees project a knowledgeable demeanor but they are spouting what they are told by career people who never go away and who train their replacements carefully. These are military and civil servants with enormous collective power, armed with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, Defense Industrial Security Manuals, compartmentalized classification structures and "Rice Bowls" which are never mixed.<br /><br />Our society has slowly given this power structure its momentum which is constant and extraordinarily tough to bend. The cost to the average American is high in terms of real dollars and bad decisions. Every major power structure member in the Pentagon's many Washington Offices and Field locations in the US and Overseas has a counterpart in Defense Industry Corporate America. That collective body has undergone major consolidation in the last 10 years. What used to be a broad base of competitive firms is now a few huge monoliths, such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Boeing.<br /><br />Government oversight committees are carefully stroked. Men like Sam Nunn and others who were around for years in military and policy oversight roles have been cajoled, given into on occasion but kept in the dark about the real status of things until it is too late to do anything but what the establishment wants. This still continues - with increasing high technology and potential for abuse.<br /><br />Until this machine runs out of the credit to run it and the credibility to sustain it we will continue to feed it young American lives.<br /><br />http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/odyssey-of-armaments.htmlRoseCovered Glasseshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14959248140987830086noreply@blogger.com