Is it Business or Is It Government: Lockheed Conflicts
On February 10, General Joseph Dunford will join the Lockheed Board of Directors. Gen. Dunford was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2015 to 2019 according to Reuters news agency.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer and the principal military advisor to the president, the secretary of defense and the National Security Council. – Department of Defense website
Over 40 senior Pentagon officials have been hired by Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of the F-35 jet and biggest weapons manufacturer in the world, over the past decade.
The Pentagon, Lockheed Revolving Door
Mark Esper, the Secretary of Defense , appointed by President Donald Trump was formerly a lobbyist for Raytheon. Raytheon makes multiple components for the F-35 jet.
Esper was Chief of Staff at the Heritage Foundation which grew out of the Powell Memo of 1971. Heritage was part of the movement by big business to develop more rule through the influence of big money/corporate money and move away from human beings and democratic process having a say in government. This movement towards plutocracy invigorated by the Powell Memo, and some might argue corruption, was organized largely by the Chamber of Commerce.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper – DOD Website
In his third try at naming a Secretary of the Army, President Donald Trump has turned to a longtime lobbyist for the arms industry, raising serious questions of ethics and conflicts of interest that are nothing new to this administration. Mark Esper has been vice president for government relations at Raytheon, a major weapons contractor, since July 2010. As Raytheon’s top lobbyist, Esper had many tools of persuasion at his disposal, including $3.1 million in donations to candidates during the 2016 elections, spending $4.8 million on lobbying, and having Raytheon PAC make $1.5 million in donations to candidates for their support. Indeed, in a July 2017 conference call with investors, Raytheon CEO Tom Kennedy enthused that the Trump administration “has opened several doors for us.”
The US government: a streamlined project for gangsters to sell weapons to the world. If you were in government and you knew your next job was going to be with the private war profiteers, it might effect your decision making. Conflicts of interest undermine the effectiveness of our public officials.