Don’t forget the FOX News, CNN and MSNBC strategic analyst speaking gigs. They’re all on television explaining how the end of the war and occupation of Afghanistan and the end of one of the biggest grifts in world history is one of the worst things that has ever happened to this country.
“When Stanley A. McChrystal was the top general in Afghanistan, he would ask his troops a question: “If I told you that you weren’t going home until we win — what would you do differently?” …But the generals who led the mission — including McChrystal, who sought and supervised the 2009 American troop surge — have thrived in the private sector since leaving the war. They have amassed influence within businesses, at universities and in think tanks, in some cases selling their experience in a conflict that killed an estimated 176,000 people, cost the United States more than $2 trillion and concluded with the restoration of Taliban rule.
McChrystal is the runaway corporate leader. A board member or adviser for at least 10 companies since 2010, according to corporate filings and news releases, he also leverages his experience to secure lucrative consulting contracts on topics distant from defense work, such as managing the coronavirus pandemic for state and local governments. The general, who was dismissed after being quoted in 2010 disparaging then-Vice President Joe Biden, has made millions from corporations, governments and universities, commanding six-figure salaries for some of his board positions and high five-figure speaking fees. ..
The eight generals who commanded American forces in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2018 have gone on to serve on more than 20 corporate boards, according to a review of company disclosures and other releases. …”
It is almost like the political establishment is one gigantic corrupt nexus of power – elite media, elite academia, multinational corporations, the think tanks, the failed generals, etc.
“And Jack Keane, a longtime advocate for troops in Afghanistan who said in 2012 that the U.S. had “begun the turn of momentum” in the eastern part of Afghanistan, reportedly made 16 appearances on Fox News across 10 days — without disclosing his work for a military vehicle manufacturer, according to the Daily Beast.
Perhaps most enraging to critics have been appearances on MSNBC and CNN by John Bolton, a longtime advocate for U.S. military intervention who served in the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, and who opposed Trump’s 2020 peace deal with the Taliban. On CNN last week, Bolton told host Anderson Cooper that “the execution of this withdrawal has been bungled.” In a tweet, MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan responded that “Bolton should only be on TV if he is being held to account for the lies he told or the deaths he caused.” …”
Both parties go along with this.
When Trump was in power, CNN and MSNBC and the New York Times and The Washington Post were mouthpieces for damaging leaks from within the Deep State and “intelligence community.” Now that Biden is in power, the same cast of characters are going on FOX News to criticize him for getting out of Afghanistan which was one of their grievances against Trump. Hannity bashes the Deep State one night and gives its mouthpieces a platform the next night.
I killed plenty of brown people. To no particular end like colonisation and on behalf of Israel. That’s $100,000 niggahs.
“one gigantic corrupt nexus of power”, that can also be called “Mordor on the Potomac” or “Holy Zion” or “The Great Whore Babylon” depending on your preferred allegory.
Military men who stay in long enough and are ambitious and conformance-minded enough to make it to the rank of general are above all careerists, not necessarily men of conscience or great ability.
Anyone who has spent any significant amount of time at all in an organization with structure and a command hierarchy (i.e. an org chart) knows competence is very often not among the main criteria that determine who gets promoted.
Time to play the new game “Who Wrote This headline?”
Was it an alleged Neo-Nazi website or the Washington Post?
I must credit someone (without mentioning his name because he sometimes has had quarrels with you and attached people to the point of making me angry saying things that are infuriating, i.e. his disrespectable and cruel obituary of Rush Limbaugh) I will not link or mention his name but those of you who follow these things closely know of whom I am speaking.
I only mention it because I will not steal other’s good points.
They’re not generals, they’re prostitutes and politicians.
‘McChrystal’……lol! Is that even a real name?