Through the Prism of Commanders in chief, Congress, the Mercenary class—LIFE IS CHEAP

Potomac River to the Gulf of Aden
Black Sea to the Caribbean 

 

News missing from USA Main Stream 

 

CASHING IN ‘…Cause enough is NEVER Enough

As hundreds of thousands of US citizens languish in homelessness (their numbers rising at least over the past forty years) and US foreign aggression forces millions of people from their homelands—the US mercenary class are transforming themselves into multimillionaires. CASE:

“Retired” US military “officers” are permitted to receive “six- or seven-figure salaries overseas while earning lucrative taxpayer-funded pensions back home.” One example is “a four-star general with over 40-years of service in the military… drawing down an annual retirement salary exceeding “$230,000” “plus health care benefits.”

Retired Marine General James L. Jones, former Obama administration national security adviser reportedly signed on with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (working with MbS) in 2017. In service to the KSA, Jones reportedly “enlisted the help of ‘about a dozen ​​former senior Pentagon officials including former Clinton administration defense secretary, William S. Cohen.’….” Fifteen former US military “generals and admirals have worked directly for Saudi Crown Prince and Saudi Defense Minister Mohamed Bin Salman.”

October 18, 2022, in Responsible Statecraft, an online magazine of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Connor Echols reported on recent investigations showing that “Retired US military brass are cashing in with work for Gulf autocrats: … Some officials even arranging plans to advise foreign governments WHILE ON ACTIVE DUTY ….” https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/10/18/retired-us-military-brass-are-cashing-in-with-work-for-gulf-autocrats-reports/

TRAFFICKING IN DEATH

Part of the larger push to exploit the (US-aided crisis) in Ukraine and “jack up Pentagon spending for things that have nothing to do with defending Ukraine, or any likely future scenario”— United States “lawmakers and defense contractors” are exploiting Ukraine to fill “their weapons wish list.”

Militarist Mercenary Buddies in locked step and linked arms with revolving door lobbyists, financiers of political campaigns, and seated government officials will ensure sales, indiscriminately, sales of any kind of death-dealing implement or technology to any entity. 

 

The US Army expresses a desire “to double the production of HIMARS and triple production of certain types of artillery ‘in response to the war in Ukraine’ …” Lockheed Martin then announces “plans to expand production (by more than 50 percent) of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System: HIMARS.”

Connor Echols writing October 18, 2022, at Responsible Statecraft: “Defense contractors eye long-term profits from Ukraine war: A new proposal would slash protections against price gouging and ratchet up weapons production well past Kyiv’s needs.” https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/10/19/defense-contractors-eye-long-term-profits-from-ukraine-war/

COURTING DESPOTS 

Despite the unspeakable KSA savagery in Yemen resulting in relentless humanitarian crises and “nearly 400,000” deaths “through direct and indirect means”—including thousands of civilian deaths caused by “Saudi airstrikes carried out with U.S.-supplied equipment and logistical support,” the administration in Washington (after over a brief tiff over oil) has returned to the United States’ usual business of selling war weaponry to the despotic kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. 

 

In addition to the US Saudi sales of death are US war-weaponry sales to “repressive regimes in Egypt, Nigeria, and the Philippines,” all with reckless disregard for the interminable consequences in human suffering. 

October 20, 2022, William Hartung writes “Bombs & guns: Biden’s ‘business as usual’ approach to US arms sales: A new report shows the White House is still ‘checking its values at the door’ when it comes to arms transfers abroad.” https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/10/20/bombs-guns-drones-bidens-business-as-usual-approach-to-us-weapons-sales/

RAZING HAITI

Over a long period (in recent times to the Cold War era also part of a centuries’ old pattern of U.S. tyranny), US officials and other foreign meddlers and aggressors have interfered in the affairs of Haiti, and always made matters worse.

The current crisis in Haiti “is itself the product” of US government interference, which backed a businessman turned politician (assassinated in 2021), President Jovenel Moïse; and now is attempting to keep in power an acting prime minister, Ariel Henry, who lacks “democratic legitimacy” and is being strenuously opposed by a “broad coalition of Haitians.”

Contemptuous of the Haitian citizenry, the United Nations—supported by the Biden administration—is being pushed to deploy a “peacekeeping” force (an element of aggression) in Haiti. It is a well-documented fact that UN peacekeeping personnel stationed in Haiti have committed “extensive human rights abuses” not the least of which being the “sexual assault of young women and girls, and the spread of cholera.” Abusers of human rights cannot be trusted to protect or preserve human rights. 

October 21, 2022, Daniel Larison writes “The last thing Haiti needs is a foreign military intervention: As conditions spiral out of control there, the UN wants to send ‘peacekeepers.’ But as we’ve seen in the past, this could be a disaster.” https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/10/21/haitians-dont-want-us-troops-to-solve-their-problems/

Responsible Statecraft is the online magazine of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft that publishes outside contributors and reporters as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news “to promote a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy and critique the ideologies and interests that have mired the United States in counterproductive and endless wars and made the world less secure.” Its website https://responsiblestatecraft.org/about/

Composition and Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images
Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett
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