Bush promotes corrupt military leadership
posted 18th August 2005 in Ethics, George W. Bush, War and Peace by jclifford
There’s a funny odor coming out of the Pentagon these days, a smell suspiciously reminiscent of a load of pork that’s been sitting, hidden in a closet, for far too long. The odor gets remarkably stronger, Pentagon insiders say, when Defense undersecretary Michael Wynne walks into the room.
President Bush has nominated Michael Wynne to become the new head of the Air Force. That choice seems odd to people who follow the corruption that has plagued the Air Force administration in recent years.
It all has to do with Boeing, a corporation with a name that sounds like a spring, but has been found to have a rather rigid culture of criminal back room deals. Not too long ago, Boeing’s chief financial officer and a top Air Force official were found to have been working in cahoots to rig a special airplane leasing deal that would have benefitted Boeing but cost the American government huge amounts of money. In the secret deal, the Air Force inflated the price of the leased planes in order to give a “gift” to Boeing. Both of these people are now in prison.
What was the benefit that the American government got in exchange for that gift? Well, the government itself got nothing, but the Air Force official was promised a cushy job at Boeing. Also, executives at Boeing gave huge amounts of money in campaign donations to the Republican Party. So, taxpayer money flowed quite freely from the Air Force to Boeing and into the pockets of Republican politicians.
In the middle of all this was Michael Wynne, who was in charge of the Pentagon’s office of acquisitions at the very time that the corrupt deals with Boeing were being made. A report released just three months ago by the Pentagon’s Inspector General blamed Wynne for allowing the Boeing back room deals to take place outside of the procedures formally established by the Pentagon.
Michael Wynne was also found to have deliberately misled the auditors at the White House budget office about the corrupt Boeing deal. Wynne told the auditors that a Leasing Review Panel had approved the dirty deal “after comprehensive and deliberative review”. In fact, the panel had not yet finished its deliberations and had made no recommendations about whether the deal should or should not be allowed.
Given the evidence, there are only two possible explanations for Michael Wynne’s involvement in the corrupt deal between the Air Force and Boeing. Either Wynne was part of the corruption, or he was such an incompetent bumbling fool that he couldn’t see what was going on right in front of his own eyes and didn’t know enough about the proper procedures for Air Force administration to make sure that they were followed.
Whichever is the case, Michael Wynne’s record shows that he is one of the last people on Earth who ought to be put in charge of the Air Force. Yet, that’s precisely the job that George W. Bush has nominated Michael Wynne for.
Now we have to ask the question about George W. Bush’s judgment: Is Bush knowingly rewarding the corruption of the Boeing deal, or is he just too stupid to figure out that putting people like Michael Wynne in charge of the nation’s military is not a good idea?
Tags: bizarre
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Very interesting. Can you put in some source links?
You bet, Bob. Here’s a pretty mainstream source for you on this story, from USA Today, accepted as a standard by businessmen in hotels across America:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-17-wynne-nomination-scrutiny_x.htm
Well, as usual, it’s not surprising, since this administration is based on sneaky policies, smarmy attitudes, smug demeanor, and smear campaigns.
And, to think that most of these “Generals” are products of our system of Military Academies (West Point, Colorado Springs, Annapolis, for the Navy) and all have rigid “Honor Codes” which clearly state, “I will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate around me those who do.” In times gone by, military men honored, respected and were honored and respected for following this honor code. Patton followed it, MacArthur followed it, George marshall, Chester Nimitz, Curtis LeMay,many others. maybe it’s time we got back to the old way of doing things. Maybe we could respect our military leaders again…God knows, they leave us very little to honor and respect these days.
but, what smuggness and what disdain for what the american population think. georgie has absolutely no consideration for anyone that isn’t stuffing his back pockets. he said he was willing to spend his politcal capital and he’s on a spending spree of mass proportions.
The controversy isn’t new. If you have read Colin Powell’s biography, you find that one of his assignments was as adjutant to an LTC Abernathy. I knew this man, he was a freind of my fathers, and he is now deceased, but during Viet Nam, after the My Lai massacre he was stationed at the pentagon. He had officers under him who were ROTC and West Point. He actually had to forbid discussion of My Lai in his office. Problem: The ROTC boys wondered how West Pointers could condone the cover-up of war crimes, and murders, plus lie like rugs. They were told that there was such a thing as loyalty, blah blah blah. ROTC men replied that god forbnid someone should be suspected of some (gasp) CHEATING ON A TEST or even not peaching on someone for doing some error in the minutae of cadet hood, but, hey! Atrocities, oath breaking, crimes, that’s different. Passers-by would be treated to the sight of these young leaders (“a yearning nation’s blue-eyed pride…” eecummings)grappling and thrashing on the floor, king the furniture about, or frailing and beating on each other. This was…UNSEEMLY!
Randy Ray, the man is like every other gambler and drunk I’ve run into. He’s spent his “capital”, now he’ll spend everyone else’s he can mange toi lay hands on.
It is not just the Republicans who prostituted the public support for the military. After the 1995 BRAC closed bases the same person that got caught sending woork to Boeing illegally, was shipping work to California at the behest of people like Matsui and Boxer.
The problem is not the political parties but the ability of appointees and congressional members to move stuff to their friends.
I say let’s stop any of the government workers, who participate in these frauds by doing what these corrupt officials want, from drawing their retirement pay from you and me!
Every one of these scandals have a group of procurement and financial people who do the bidding of corrupt bosses. Put the indians in jail and take their pensions and no chiefs like Cunningham, Druyun or Hunter will be able to cause the problems.
In fact lets bump up every whistle blower’s retirement pay by twice the amount if they finger a corrupt appointee or congressional member.