Meet Trump’s new Secretary of Defense – former Raytheon Lobbyist Mark Esper – Warmonger and Profiteer

A little bit of news that has stealthily flown below the radar in the past few days…

As per this week’s news from ZeroHedge, acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has withdrawn himself from the position leaving President Trump to appoint Mark Esper, the current Secretary of the Army (appointed in November of 2017).

Mark Esper, photo source

In this article, I will lay out why I think this appointment appears to represent yet another run-of-the-mill warmongering / Military-Industrial-Complex wet dream of a ruse by Trump and the behemoth that is the United States Military. (and I will back/prove it with facts, of course)

The Raytheon Connection

Among other issues that I will list below in this article, what is particularly troublesome about this particular individual who will occupy the United States Secretary of Defense role lies with his former ties with weapons manufacturer Raytheon.

Image source (courtesy of our dear Steemit friend @geke)

According to an article from The Hill entitled Trump's Army secretary pick made over $1.5M at Raytheon, we can easily determine that Mr. Esper has greatly benefited from his tenure as a government lobbyist for Ratheon. Here are a few snippets from the article [Emphasis Added]:

Mark Esper, President Trump’s nominee for Army secretary, made more than $1.5 million over the last 12 months in his job as a lobbyist for Raytheon, according to a financial disclosure he recently filed with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE).

The $1.52 million he earned at Raytheon includes his salary and any bonuses, and does not include his stock options and deferred compensation at the company, worth anywhere from $1.5 million to as much as $6 million.

Even the late (warmongering) Senator John McCain expressed concerns about Mr. Esper regarding his ties to the Defense industry in his opening statement during Esper's confirmation:

"Dr. Esper, I would be remiss if I did not reiterate my concerns about the number of nominees from the defense industry filling out the leadership ranks at the Department of Defense. I want to be clear that my reservations grew out of early consultations I had with the administration about potential nominations, including yours and a handful of others that were yet to be nominated."

Although there may not necessarily be any apparent conflicts of interest between the positions held by Mr. Esper and his former employer Raytheon, one needs to remain highly skeptical that all such ties have completely been severed – something that one can surmise as quite unlikely.

Mark Esper on C-SPAN (at the Atlantic Council)

In a recent (May 17, 2019) video broadcast on C-SPAN from the Atlantic Council, Esper talked about efforts to reallocate resources to face threats to military supremacy from Russia and China:

Watch the video from the 07:50 point to listen to the Army Secretary’s talk.

He rambles on a LOT about Russia and China as the new boogeymen for the 21st century. Although he has a point that the Bear & Dragon have developed far superior weapons in recent years, his whole speech is one giant plea for “modernization” (of the US Military) which means hefty profits for all those involved and invested in the Military-Industrial-Complex.

First a little bit about the Atlantic Council:

The Atlantic Council is a “think tank” (which is usually code word for an organization that aims to subvert a particular government’s foreign and domestic policies) based in Washington D.C. in the United States that often promotes pro-war and pro-interventionist policies and agendas which help funnel profits to the almighty Military-Industrial-Complex machine.

This particular outfit really serves as a propaganda wing for NATO which is an organization lead by the United States mostly comprised of Western European member countries that support various efforts of the Empire of Chaos such as the recent annihilation of Lybia and the abandonment of important treaties such as those that were in place to maintain peace with Russia.

If you look at their own website, you will see who financially support them; here are but a few that figure among this list of power players:

• The US State Department (lead by none other than former CIA Director and warmonger in chief, sorry I meant to say “diplomat” in chief, or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo).
• United States Department of Defense
• United States Air Force Academy, United States Navy
• NATO
• United Arab Emirates, Republic of Korea, Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• Facebook, Google
• CNN, 21st Century Fox, Thomson Reuters
• ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, Shell Oil , Trans-Oil International,BP America Inc., ConocoPhillips, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation
• Open Society Foundations (yes, that one lead by billionaire pro-European-migration buff George Soros)
• Rockefeller & Co., Inc., Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Company, Northrop Grumman Corporation
• HSBC, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley

Perusing the list above shows you not only the sheer financial backing that this organization receives but also the respective power and clout these giants have in their respective industries. Notables include all the big US banks and oil companies along with key weapons manufacturers. Tech giants Google & Facebook are also notable donors, surprise surprise as are CNN, Fox’s parent company, and Thomson Reuters – one of the largest news disseminators in the world.

Additionally troubling is to see two specific countries in this list (UAE & South Korea – and Sweden to some extent).

But the MOST TROUBLING is to see the US Dept. of State & the Department of Defense. WTF? Really? How can this not be a MAJOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST and breeding ground for perpetual warmongering and profiteering? I would highly suspect related and applicable laws are being set aside here…

I will leave a few articles of interest if you really want to catch up on what this “think tank” of destruction and devastation has accomplished over the years:

• GlobalResearch.ca: The Insiduous Role of the Atlantic Council: Securing The 21st Century For NATO, 30 April 2010
• GlobalResearch.ca: Atlantic Council Lies Dashed “On the Rocks” in Syria, June 17, 2018
• GlobalResearch.ca: The Atlantic Council -Syria “White Helmets” Needed, April 26, 2017
• The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity: Atlantic Council: Pro-NATO Pressure Group Uses Distortions to FIght ‘Disinformation’, June 9, 2018
• The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity: The Atlantic Council: Experts on the Front Line of Disinformation, June 9, 2018
• The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity: Atlantic Council: Pro-NATO Pressure Group Uses Distortions to FIght ‘Disinformation’, June 9, 2018
• StephenLendman.org: The Atlantic Council’s Russophobic Rage, August 21, 2018

Conclusion and What to look out for…

When you look at this recent appointment of this former lobbyist for weapons manufacturer Raytheon Mr. Mark Esper along with the broader picture I have painted above in this article, you can not but nicely fit the pieces of the puzzle together and come to an undeniable conclusion that this is yet another build up for more conflict and more war by the Empire of Chaos and its mighty military machine.

Just look at how desperately they've been trying to start a war with Iran recently.

The whole thing stinks to high heaven.

MIC BONUS:

Thanks to our dear Steemit friend @geke, we can see that Mark Esper is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the revolving door and conflicts of interests between the US Government and Weapons manufacturers.

For those who would like to conduct more research on these nefarious linkages, here are some good starting points:

Comments and interesting findings are most welcome for you to add in the comments sections below.

Spread the word, Re-steem if you think this message is important.

In Peace & Liberty,

@libertyacademy