Everyone has an opinion and the speculation is almost entirely based on what former Senator Hagel has said, rather than his actions–or lack of them–which speak a lot louder. Take an acutely political career that seems to have valued words above everything and match it with Pentagon myths about defense systems, and you get a somewhat different picture of what to expect from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. It is not at all encouraging. This commentary about the all embracing mythology of drones and Chuck Hagel was published at Foreign Policy last evening.
Or will he be yet another victim of Pentagon operators?
WINSLOW WHEELER | JANUARY 7, 2013
U.S. Central Command has released some interesting numbers on the performance of modern air systems in Afghanistan; the data do not auger well for our defenses in the next decade, nor for the suitability of the man who appears likely to be the next secretary of defense, former Senator Chuck Hagel — his admirable iconoclasm toward some national security dogmas notwithstanding.
SHERLOCK HOLMES once remarked that: “It is my business to know what other people don’t know.” These days, detective work is a huge business. Thanks to globalisation, there is a lot that companies would like to know but don’t, such as: is our prospective partner in Jakarta a crook?
Corporate detectives sniff out the facts, analyse them, share them with clients and pocket fat fees. Yet, oddly for a multi-billion-dollar industry devoted to discovering the truth, little is known about private investigators. So your correspondent took up his magnifying glass and set off in pursuit of the bloodhounds of capitalism.
Reveal the system and you reveal options. Conceal the system and you slam doors of opportunity and weld them shut.
One of the best quotes I've ever come across is by Peter Fryer:
“I have found that in nearly all situations I can view what is happening in Complex Adaptive Systems terms and that this opens up a variety of new options which give me more choice and more freedom.”
That means is that anyone who is preventing the citizens of humanity from seeing the actual operations of the greater system is limiting the options of humanity at a time when we have few enough options as it is, because they are preventing us from viewing what's happening in the system.
Through their actions they are collectively digging the grave of humanity.
Of course this is why transparency and openness are so vital. This applies to nations, political parties, corporations, and any other institution that routinely hides the truth from the people and that expends massive amounts of effort to keep us from seeing what's really going on. And even they don't see the greater system because other human collectives are hiding things from them too.
Everyone is hiding a part of the global system for one reason or another, usually for self-interest or for the benefit of the corrupt network of mutual back-scratchers to which they belong. And they think they're being clever. But because the collective actions of agents within a system change the environment in which they all operate, they're only hiding the operation, not the catastrophic consequences of their actions, which will become all too apparent in time.
By blinding us, the rest of humanity, to what they do . . . by putting our eyes out . . . those who conceal the system from us are slamming the doors of opportunity that might be the only hope for our continued survival as a species
UPDATE: Brannan nominated. We wish him well. The drone program will be his death unless he wises up quickly and transfers the drone program to the military. During his tenure CIA will face legal challenges in world courts, direct assassination of not-so-secret CIA case officers operating with impunity, and a president very disappointed that CIA cannot spell fracking, much less understand the brave new world.
Poor CIA. Poor DNI. All that money and no respect. Here are the leading candidates and their flaws.
John Brennan. Honest — for all his flaws including having no idea what it takes to create a good analyst. Rotten attention to detail, but he has the confidence of the President, could be a compromise with the Zionists, and if he picked a couple of seriously deep aides, would set the stage for closing down the DNI and restoring the Director of Central Intelligence position, an immediate savings of several billion dollars. QUALIFIED
Director, Wall Street CIA. A Catholic, trusted by the Zionists, he would get along with the Secretaries of State and Defense, knows clandestine operations better than anyone else now serving, with the right team he could both resurrect all-source intelligence and set stage for termination of the DNI. QUALIFIED
Jane Harman. In the wings as the trade-off for Zionist silence on Chuck Hagel. More ego than brains, would be a figurehead kept busy with dinner parties. CIA would have to enlist the FBI for assistance in making sure all her guests show up, she really, really does not like empty seats at “her” table. DISQUALIFIED
Michael Morrel. Acting Director. Personally brilliant, without any knowledge of operations, easily lied to, and had no idea that Global Trends 2030 was a rotten piece of work. DISQUALIFIED.
Stupid title but the attached piece by Spencer Ackerman is quite relevant for sorting out the implications of a Hegel nomination for Secretary of Defense.
I am ambivalent over this choice. The central question is how an incoming Secretary of Defense will deal with cleaning out the Pentagon's Augean Stables. Nothing in Hagel's record (or in the records of the alternative choices) suggests an appreciation of or a desire to fix the problems at the roots of this mess (see here or here). That is not a show stopper for Hegel in itself, but more troubling is the fact that there is no indication anyone in the press, Congress, or the White House is aware of the need for (or wants?) a defense secretary with the background and cajones to take on this task. Moreover, no single person can do this alone. A serious effort to clean up the Pentagon will require committed deputies, but the lack of debate of over any choice of 2nd or 3rd level political appointees suggests the current ineffectual team will remain in place.
My guess: a lot of noise and smoke and mirrors in the debate of the next defense secretary will mask the decision to continue business as usual in Versailles on the Potomac. We will see.
It’s looking like President Obama will nominate former Senator Chuck Hagel to run the Pentagon on Monday. It’ll mean a fight: for the last month, conservative critics of the former Republican senator have called him a wimp, insufficiently bellicose toward Iran, Hamas, Syria, the Taliban and other global malefactors. All of that overlooks the Vietnam combat veteran’s record in the Senate.
Spying on Americans’ communications without warrants? Have at it, said Hagel. A ballistic missile shield? Yes, please, and who cares if it angers the Kremlin. NATO’s 1999 war in Kosovo? Hagel was willing to flood it with U.S. soldiers.
Hagel earned his reputation as a skeptic of American military adventurism, as anyone who remembers his consistent criticism of the Iraq war will remember. But that criticism has blown Hagel’s reputation for dovishness out of proportion: after all, he voted in 2002 to authorize the war. National Journal’s Michael Hirsch insightfully argues Hagel’s reward for asking hard questions about the war is to have official Washington forget the rest of his record. So consider this a refresher.
Even as Hagel was making himself George W. Bush’s least favorite Republican, he aided Bush in crucial moments in congressional showdowns over the limits of presidential power in wartime.
SUMMARY: Around the world, criminal organizations and governments are fusing to an unprecedented degree, blurring the distinction between national interests and what suits the gangsters. Mafia states enjoy the unhealthy advantages of their hybrid status: they're as nimble as gangs and as well protected as governments, and thus more dangerous than either.
MOISES NAIM is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy.
The global economic crisis has been a boon for transnational criminals. Thanks to the weak economy, cash-rich criminal organizations can acquire financially distressed but potentially valuable companies at bargain prices. Fiscal austerity is forcing governments everywhere to cut the budgets of law enforcement agencies and court systems. Millions of people have been laid off and are thus more easily tempted to break the law. Large numbers of unemployed experts in finance, accounting, information technology, law, and logistics have boosted the supply of world-class talent available to criminal cartels. Meanwhile, philanthropists all over the world have curtailed their giving, creating funding shortfalls in the arts, education, health care, and other areas, which criminals are all too happy to fill in exchange for political access, social legitimacy, and popular support. International criminals could hardly ask for a more favorable business environment. Their activities are typically high margin and cash-based, which means they often enjoy a high degree of liquidity — not a bad position to be in during a global credit crunch.
But emboldened adversaries and dwindling resources are not the only problems confronting police departments, prosecutors, and judges. In recent years, a new threat has emerged: the mafia state. Across the globe, criminals have penetrated governments to an unprecedented degree. The reverse has also happened: rather than stamping out powerful gangs, some governments have instead taken over their illegal operations. In mafia states, government officials enrich themselves and their families and friends while exploiting the money, muscle, political influence, and global connections of criminal syndicates to cement and expand their own power. Indeed, top positions in some of the world's most profitable illicit enterprises are no longer filled only by professional criminals; they now include senior government officials, legislators, spy chiefs, heads of police departments, military officers, and, in some extreme cases, even heads of state or their family members.
The west's dwindling connection with the natural world puts it in increasing peril, says the distinguished anthropologist in his new book. Many of the practices of tribal cultures can help us to rediscover our way, he argues – from respecting the environment to letting toddlers play with knives
EXTRACT
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Since moving to LA, Diamond has produced a series of books that have propelled him to fame. The first, The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, appeared in 1992, its title referring to Homo sapiens, who are depicted by Diamond as a species of chimpanzee that is increasingly out of kilter with the natural world, particularly since the invention of agriculture, “a catastrophe from which we have never recovered”. With the arrival of farming, Diamond argues, women were subjected to domestic drudgery; people started to hoard resources and wealth; and our proximity to animals triggered disease epidemics that still threaten to overwhelm us. “With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence,” he states. The Third Chimpanzee won the Royal Society prize for science books that year.
