The Personification of the Military-Industrial Racket

If you didn't know who Randy Scheunemann was until the New York Times wrote about him Thursday morning I bet he and John McCain preferred it that way. He is a lot more than just a former lobbyist for Georgia.

After being a Capitol Hill staffer from the mid-1980s (working on the use of American military power abroad, NATO expansion and defense projects), Scheunemann became the national security adviser for Bob Dole's 1996 disastrous presidential campaign.

In 1997 Scheunemann was one of the founding members of the Project for a New American Century, the premier neo-con outfit that said America needed a new Pearl Harbor in order to violently remake the world in its image.

Scheunemann then set himself up as a lobbyist in 1999. His Orion Strategies and Scheunemann & Associates have represented oil companies, arms manufacturers and the NRA.

He became a registered foreign agent for several nations. Back in May the New York Times reported: "Over the past several years, Mr. Scheunemann met several times with Mr. McCain to discuss his clients' interests. He introduced the senator to the foreign ministers of Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia as they tried to win admission to NATO, and a representative of Taiwan as it lobbied for free trade, records show. Mr. Scheunemann also accompanied Mr. McCain to Latvia in 2001 and Georgia in 2006."

Last March he ended his registration with these countries but as the Times pointed out McCain staffers "are not allowed to participate in any campaign conversations about the issues for which they lobby, which would seem to pose a conflict for someone like Mr. Scheunemann. His work as a foreign agent could overlap on any number of issues with his foreign policy advice."

Oil and arms are his specialty. According to OpenSecrets.org, Scheunemann & Associates in 2005 represented the Caspian Alliance, a consortium of oil- and gas-producing nations from the Caspian region. Right Web says, "Scheunemann has also ... lobbied on behalf of clients that include Swiftships Shipbuilders, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, BP America, Air Force Memorial Foundation, Lockheed Martin, National Shooting Sports Foundation, and Sporting Arms and Ammunitions Manufacturers."

Scheunemann advised McCain during his failed bid for the Republican nomination in 2000.

Then in 2002 Scheunemann was a founder and became the first president of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, pushing the phony threats that fooled uncritical members of Congress and the press, and ultimately a majority of the public.

Who has benefited from the invasion and occupation of Iraq other than oil companies and arms manufacturers? We know the American and Iraqi peoples haven't.

According to blogger Lindsay Beyerstein, Scheunemann worked to help win oil contracts in Iraq.

Scheunemann clearly enriches his clients and himself by organizing and pushing for war. That's his business.

But don't we want a man to advise a possible president of the United States on how to be a statesman and solve international problems rather than how to whip them up into armed conflicts?

Having chosen Randy Scheunemann as his chief foreign policy advisor, there should be no doubt that McCain is a neo-con and will continue to pursue those disastrous and supposedly discredited policies. He will be a seller, or monger, of wars.

Further, Scheunemann stands as living, breathing proof of what some people dismiss as cliché and theory only: the incestuous relationship between the White House, the Pentagon, defense contractors, Congress and foreign governments: the military industrial complex. He is a lynchpin. Promoting war is Scheunemann's business and it will be John McCain's business too if the American people elect him president.

Read more: www.politicalodyssey.com

Comments

[cunuck]

The neocons rats have jumped Bush's sinking ship and have climbed aboard McCain's.

If the neocon infestation of the American government is allowed to continue, the country will be constantly involved in wars, large and small, with it's attendant war profiteering.

[dgscol]

There is no industry left in the US- it was liquidated. What now exists is a military-petroleum complex, hungry for new pastures. Baku's oil is roughly equivalent to ANWR. My guess : the US troops were protecting the pipeline against "terrorists" (actually might've been Georgians), while training the Georgians to do this for themselves, and the Georgians used this propitious moment to grab the disputed territories.

I wonder what the US troops were doing during the action? Getting on a C130?

[FredrickBernanke]

Generally speaking, when it comes to the election process, aka Democracy, I "the fewer rules, the better"-guy.

Having said that, I am going to suggest a new rule:

RESOLVED; "No individual who is or has ever served as a "Registered Foreign Agent" for any country in the world may hold any office or appointed position in the United States Government, including but not limited to the Executive Branch."

Is it really good for Democracy to have a "former" foreign agent embedded as the top foreign policy adviser to the Republican candidate in his campaign for President of the United States?

Note: I do not know if there are any ex-foreign agents embedded in Obama's entourage. If so, my feelings would be equally as queasy.

Finally, do Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, Canada, for examples, employee "registered foreign agents" here in the USA? (I know some have unregistered agents operating, of course."

[mosh]

Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.

The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manner and of morals, engendered in both.

No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

James Madison - from "Political Observations" April 20,1795 in Letters and other Writings, Volume IV, page 491.

[valleygent]

And yet the American people as a whole do nothing about a government gone corrupt. An apathetic public has no refuge in liberties that are forsaken. God help us.

[hopeless277]

Hey!!! John McCain is a WAR HERO!! As such he deserves your respect, your tolerance, and your patience. He may say the wrong things and do the wrong things at times but we all know he means well and loves his country. He would NEVER, and I mean NEVER, deal with anyone suspected of giving him bad advise for money. His word is good enough for me and it should be good enough for you. If John McCain says Randy Scheunemann is on the up and up, then you can bet the farm that he is. I am upset and humiliated for you at this baseless attack on the integrity of a WAR HERO. Shame on you!!! John McCain is a WAR HERO!!!!

[timm0]

haha!!

That's the whole campaign in a paragraph...

[martinchill]

nah - the name obama was nowhere in it...

;p

[timm0]

I'm still not sure mccain is a neocon.

I AM sure that he's sold his soul to the neocon structure and has agreed to do their bidding. But I think that's one of the reasons mccain appears so wooden and uninspiring on the stump. I doubt he believes in his heart in the neocon dream, but he's playing the game like a good, obedient servant.