tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591293767608387900.post404907251736723978..comments2023-11-02T04:43:07.951-05:00Comments on Above The Din: Escalate ThisAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316992481433104110noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591293767608387900.post-7948244422653518092007-01-13T19:11:00.000-05:002007-01-13T19:11:00.000-05:00Doughnutman,
It is difficult to convey the comple...Doughnutman,<br /><br />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 beaurocracy that no president totally understands it. He does not have the clearances to study it before he arrives and he is overwhelmed when he takes office by the detail and the enormity of the information. <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, the Defense Industrial Security Manual, 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 extraordinary in tems 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 our Defense Industry Corporate America, which has udergone extraordinatry 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 />Congressional oversight committees are carefully stroked. <br /><br />Congressmen like Samm Nunn and others who were around for years in military and policy oversight roles were cajoled, given into on occasion but kept in the dark about the real status of things until it was too late to do anything but what the establshment wanted. This still continues - with increasing high technology and potential for abuse. <br /><br />Please examine the following link to testimony given by Franklin C. Spinney before Congress in 2002. It provides very specific information from a whistle blower who is still blowing his whistle (Look him up in hour browser and you get lots of feedback) Frank spent the same amount of time as I did in the MIC, but in government quarters. His job was similar role to mine in corporate America. Frank's emphasis in this testimony is on the money the machine costs us. It is compelling testimony and was made just before he walked away from the Pentagon in disgust. It is noteworthy that he was still a staff analyst at the Pentagon when he gave this speech. I still can't figure out how he got his superior's permission to say such blunt things. All I can think of was that he was extremely highly respected. <br /><br />http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/spinney_testimony_060402.htm <br /><br />The brick wall I refer to is the Pentagon's own arrogance. It will implode by it's own volition, go broke, or so drastically let down the American people that it will fall in shambles. Rest assured the day of the implosion is coming. The machine is out of control.RoseCovered Glasseshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14959248140987830086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591293767608387900.post-77142581818192092952007-01-13T12:01:00.000-05:002007-01-13T12:01:00.000-05:00any way of knowing when it will hit the wall?any way of knowing when it will hit the wall?Doughnutmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00197338507935907345noreply@blogger.com