Ashton Carter: Obama Nominates Harvard Professor As Top Weapons Buyer

Boston Globe:

President Obama late this afternoon nominated Harvard professor Ashton B. Carter, a leading authority on arms control, to take on a surprising new role, according to top administration officials -- as the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer.

Read the whole story: Boston Globe

Comments

[TJRich]

Hopefully 'black budgets' will become a thing of the past.

[AERO]

There will be no "Brownies" in the Obama administration!

[newshawk14]

This looks like an outstanding choice, as a former engineer with the aerospace industry, I've long
thought that they regard a government contract, as a license to steal. In addition, I think William
Perry was one of our finest secretaries of defense in many years.

[Big0725]

When I see a headline say "Defense industry worried" I get a Tweedy-esque tingle up my leg.

[easarsfield]

It will be interesting to see how Republicans react to this. We know they love spending on military play things - but I have a feeling that Ashton will but the so-called fiscal conservatives to shame when he starts cutting away at the incredibly wasteful defense spending that has gone on the past 8 years.

[Dayahka]

Excellent! Superb! Now that good old boy network between Defense and arms manufacturers is going to be examined and we're going to find that greater than the mortgage mess, greater than the banking mess, is the mess of the way defense and defense contractors have been scamming the system for decades. Now, if he could only get John McCain to join his team as an adviser this would be wonderful, because John would give him credibility and assistance in taking on the biggest bubble of all.

[CaptainStormfield]

Get ready for a big fight. This looks like a good apointment by Obama. The MIC will hate this one.

[oldGunny]

Please tell me that he paid his taxes correctly.

[Big0725]

It takes an old jarhead to get to the meat of the matter. Well done Sargent.

[longtimegone]

Perhaps Eisenhower is smiling. If Obama's every choice flew in the face of the established order like this, could he survive? Not just politically, but literally? Could it be that we have elected a very intelligent and astute human being and thus put him in danger? Power is held, as Disraeli said, in far different hands than what men suppose. I keep having intimations that Obama knows this, knows that these powers have no regard for the people as a whole, and knows that to put the power of the Presidency at the service of the people in any way, shape or form is to be in danger, is to become their enemy. And he must know how near they are to him at all times. While we need to hold him accountable in advancing a more progressive agenda for America, don't we also need to be a little forbearing in this regard and occasionally trust that perhaps he is, because of his vantage point, cognizant of things we are not? Anyway, this appointment feels like a breathe of fresh air.

[evekendall]

Excellent post. Thank you.

[TJRich]

You are so right on!!

[wiseapple]

Sounds like a smart choice. Cleared by both Obama and Gates (bipartisan). Well done.

[lthuedk 1]

This is a likely so-long to the Chebushney Military Industrial Complex! Corporate is going to get trolls all over this today. But what did we expect from national socialists of the goose-stepping kind?

Watch military heads roll. Any military brass in the Pentagon who cut shady deals with our money for the already illegal Iraq protections racket should be summarily court martialed, then tried in federal court, since it hurt all of us.

Anyone can come forward when they witness a crime.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/deep_patriot_act.html

[Teri]

how exciting!!!

[Lilybart]

His resume makes me weep.

Carter, a physicist and current Chair of the International & Global Affairs faculty at the Kennedy School, served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy from 1993 to 1996. He directed military planning during the 1994 crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program; was instrumental in removing all nuclear weapons from the territories of Ukraine, Kazakstan, and Belarus AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

[serindipity803]

TRANSPARENCY in the Pentagon - can it be true? That is how we will save our budget - all the wasteful spending in that very secretive 'octogon'.

[cyclobenzaprine9]

Another intelligent choice by President Obama. It is so refreshing having educated, sane-minded, intellectuals in our current Administration.

[Mauiloa]

A pretty frightening choice for the good old boys from the mighty Miltary-Industrial Complex!

What an awesome job Dr. Carter has before him. But perhaps...just perhaps...he can make a dent in the massive waste-riddled edifice that government and industry together have created. Whether he can tear it down to a level that even President Eisenhower would have felt comfortable with is questionable, but I applaud the effort.

It's been touch and go for some of your choices and decisions thus far, but this one is a bullseye!

Great choice, President Obama!