Hollywood is addicted to sequels. It churns them out, each worse than the last. The Swamp apparently has the same issue. If you liked “51 Spies Who Lied” you will love the sequel “741 National Security Leaders Endorse Kamala Harris”.
This august body of “national security leaders” signed their names to a letter telling us that a woman who as Vice-President has been part of the most disastrous Presidency in American history is the kind of leader we want going forward. As Putin threatens nuclear war, the Middle East goes up in flames, China invades the territorial waters of the Philippines and openly threatens Japan and Taiwan, these “experts” tell us what we need is more of the same.
Given the absurdity of the claim that Harris is a “leader,” it is perhaps worth exploring therefore just exactly who is behind the National Security Leaders for America, the outfit that put together this absurd missive.
The signatories who signed both the 2020 letter and the endorsement of Harris include former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper; former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden; former CIA Director Leon E. Panetta; former CIA Director John Brennan; former Acting CIA Director John E. McLaughlin; former CIA chief of staff Laurence M. Pfeiffer; former Department of Defense chief of staff Jeremy Bash; CIA chief of station John Sipher; and former National Intelligence Council Chair Gregory Frye Treverton. All of these defenders of democracy were also signatories to the infamous Hunter Biden laptop letter in the runup to the 2020 election.
But, to really appreciate what this “National Security Leaders” letter is all about we need to hone in on the man who drafted it and led the effort to round up all these signatories, retired Navy admiral Mike Smith. Smith himself is hardly the non-partisan “country first” guy he claims to be. He signed on to a letter supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016. He previously supported Joe Biden before Joe was forced out of the race by the Democrat Party power brokers. In fact, Smith put together something called National Security Leaders for Biden in 2020.
Why? The evidence suggests strongly that the motivation here may be much less ideological than it is financial. In 2015 Smith joined Burdeshaw Associates a Beltway Bandit consulting firm. He is now the Executive Vice President of that firm. Burdeshaw is a consulting company and it represents the lion’s share of the major defense contractors in the United States.
Among Burdeshaw’s clients are Lockheed, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and L3 Harris. Those are seven of the ten biggest defense contractors in the United States. Burdeshaw also represents a long list of other heavy hitters like Booz, Allen & Hamilton, the Carlyle Group, CACI International, Colt Manufacturing, Bofors Explosives, etc. In short, Burdeshaw represents pretty much anybody who is anybody in the defense industrial complex.
All of these companies are raking in billions from the disastrous policies of the Biden administration. The Ukraine war alone has driven profits through the roof. Massive new contracts are awarded regularly to companies like Raytheon and Lockheed for weapons systems, munitions, and technical services. The rest of the economy may be sucking wind. If you are in the business of killing people things are looking good.
Trump has made no secret of his intention to bring the war in Ukraine to a close. He has also pledged to keep us out of future international conflicts and to stop the expansion of NATO. He wants to end the endless wars. In short, Trump has put the defense industrial complex on notice that the gravy train is about to be shut down.
One would be justified in wondering, therefore, whether these “National Security Leaders” are really concerned about democracy or if they are acting in the interest of the giant corporations that are getting rich at the expense of the American taxpayer. War is, in short, profitable, and as long as it’s not you getting shot at the longer they go on the more money there is to be made.
Take a look at the list of signatories to this latest letter. Check out where they are working now. I think you will find they are all somewhere in the DC area pulling down paychecks from defense contractors. Ask yourself if this smells like patriotism or monetary reward.
I live in Northeastern Pennsylvania an area of small towns and farms. This is the kind of place that supplies all those boys and girls who actually fight our wars. There is a reason why the row of parking spots closest to the supermarket or the Home Depot is reserved for Purple Heart recipients around here. You don’t see that a lot in Bethesda or Georgetown.
The swamp creatures may have forgotten that the real question in war is the cost, not the profit. The American people have not, and they are fed up with bleeding so somebody else can buy a bigger house or a new car. We have seen this movie before. We aren’t interested in a sequel and we aren’t buying this storyline.
Thanks for pointing out Burdeshaw’s conflict of interest. It was disgusting when some of these people signed the document concerning Hunter’s laptop, and they are trying to play a rerun now. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me “.
Once again, Sam puts his finger on the enablers of the Deep State. The myriad of companies in the military industrial complex need lobbyists like Burdeshaw -- and it's former Admiral Vice President with his Pentagon connections -- to continue to corrupt Congressmen and Senators.