Jeffrey Fisher on Tue, 2 Oct 2001 03:11:23 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> Homeland Security: The Untold Story |
also see the following article on the complete failure of the US military establishment in terrorist wargames *years ago*: http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,557678,00.html the hart-rudman report has been getting a lot of play recently, but i have to admit it strikes me as just a little bit strange watching liberals and progressives deploy it. first, the commission hardly represents the diversity of opinion hart suggests it does. virtually everyone has a substantial military leadership background, nevermind defense industry ties (including a current chair and former ceo of lockheed martin, for chrissakes). to argue that these are the people with the most experience in national security (as hart appears to me to do) is fully circular. second: "We also call for urgent changes in the presidential appointments system. The present system of harassment and delay deters recruitment of the senior talent we need to inject fresh ideas and energies into government." i agree that the appointments system the way it now functions (to speak loosely) is ridiculous. it's an opportunity for grandstanding by everyone and for cutting all sorts of backroom deals. however, the main argument from the commission seems to be that too much transparency is required. this is an unconvincing position. maybe if they'd argue against the politicization (in the worst sense of the term) of the appointments process (wherein approval hearings are delayed in a kind of hostage tactic), or against using hearings as photo opps, that would be one thing. but they don't. they argue that our poor high-level appointees have to endure too much. and on a closely-related note, third: "It is simply counterproductive to demand that senior appointees sacrifice huge sums of money - and the right even to work in their chosen fields upon leaving government service - in order to serve their country." here there seems to be a conflict of interest in their denial of the importance of conflict of interest. just as an example, norman augustine served in the defense dept, then as undersecretary of the army, is now chair (formerly also ceo, apparently) of one of the world's biggest defense contractors, and also finds himself on a congressional commission whereby he is handed the opportunity to deny the relevance of conflict of interest in public service. i would think that the words "dick cheney" ought to stand as sufficient refutation of the commission's position. i can't understand how people interpret any of this to mean that they see strengthening democracy as the best defense against terrorism. j # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net