1/21/2007
licensed to lie; Robert Young Pelton II
After having read the book and written my own little review because I was very interested in the section on Idema in Pelton’s book, and because he’d contacted me about possibly interviewing Idema, I couldn’t resist, knowing that Robert Young Pelton’s fan club has been trying to pull his pathetic attempt at writing about PMC’s out of the depths of failure, so I made a little trip to Amazon to see what the buzz was. Lo and behold, what did I find? At the top of the list, from some brilliant fellow in Peoria, Illinois by the name of Rusty Graham, a review:
After reading this book I’m not sure what he was trying to do? He really does not provide a day to day view of the contracters. He seems to globe trot through 20 years of PMC’s that point at how dangerous this industry is to the world. Yet all he provides is a few people that have given it a black eye. He has an entire chapter on a guy named Idema who is not even a PMC!!! Yet he uses him as a point to show how dangerous this industry is. One of the first few chapters goes into the authors version of how the evil Bush and his inner circle suckered america into this war. After a couple pages I just skipped this chapter cause I wanted to read about PMCs!!! He goes into detail to show that most PMCs are hired by people who’s only interest is for economic reasons. I guess he hasn’t studied US military history since the war of 1812? Cause just about every war the US has been in had roots in economics. Then when some Blackwater contracters and one marine are surrounded and engaging the enemy. Pelton focuses on the fact that a PMC was giving orders to a marine! How dangerous it is for a civilian to be ordering around military troops in a combat zone!!! ewwww aahhh… The order was for him to open fire cause the enemy was going to over run their building and kill them! hahahaa The best thing I can say about the author is he did travel around the world and interview a lot of people. He went to locations that are very dangerous. But if you want to read a book about PMCs then pick up A Bloody Business. Gives alot more detail and specifics of the industry and what these people do on a daily bases in Iraq. Unless you want an overview on how paid armed civilians in a combat zone is a threat to the world. Then read License to Kill.
It’s kind of interesting that Pelton makes a political statement in the book that is not only against PMC’s, but against the military. What it is even more astonishing is the statement that civilians should keep out of military affairs when the Secretary of Defense is a civilian, the President of the United States is a civilian, and is in fact, the Commander-In-Chief over all of the military.
But I guess we shouldn’t expect that Pelton would have much respect for the military, because in his view, journalists know better than the military does:
Here’s Bluto on Robert Young Pelton:
The history of IraqSlogger co-founder Robert Young Pelton (apparently, the “RYP” who has been commenting about IraqSlogger at various blogs) isn’t confidence-inspiring, either. In 2002 he told Salon that al Qaeda is a “bogeyman,” and that the 9/11 terrorists were really a “Mickey Mouse operation.”
And he also made this incredible statement:
And basically since the Vietnam War, the military realizes that the press is the enemy, because the press is actually faster and more intelligent than the military is. They can assess a military situation long before the military figures it out.
Pelton has found the reason why so many journalists go on to successful careers as generals. Not.
Thanks to Jo’s Cafe
The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns: Open Trackbacks Welcome
Robert Young Pelton « Causal Nexus linked with Robert Young Pelton « Causal Nexus
January 21st, 2007 at 4:26 am
Oh good lord. Let us write a book about something we know nothing about and slam some people and see how much money we can make!! geez — I need more coffee already this morning.
January 21st, 2007 at 9:31 am
His book isn’t doing very well, I checked the amazon ranking. Poor thing, the only people he’s got are his cheerleaders, like Ellen Mai, Nick Bicanic and David Isenberg. Not to mention Kathryn Cramer and Joe Cafasso.
January 21st, 2007 at 11:30 am
USA Today reported on 16 January 2007 in its Washington Section that the CIA plans to utilize more open sources and blogs in its intelligence work and outsource more of its intelligence software development to commercial contractors in an attempt to re-establish itself as the premiere world intelligence agency.
The “Strategic Intent” is posted on the CIA public web site. Defense Industry Daily further reports that General Electric is gobbling up Smith’s Industries for $4.8B.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2007/01/ge-buys-smiths-aerospace-for-48b/index.php
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak. Let’s look at this for a moment and do our patriotic duty by reading along with the CIA (after all, they have announced they are reading this blog)
1. The new CIA approach comes exactly at the formation of the agency’s new “External Advisory Board”, which consists of the following:
* A former Pentagon Chairman of the Joints Chief who is now a Northrop Grumman Corporation Board Member
* A deposed Chairman of the Board of Hewlett Packard Corporation (HP)
* A Former Deputy Secretary of Defense who now heads up a Washington think tank with Henry Kissinger
2. Northrop Grumman Corporation and Hewlett Packard are two huge government contractors in the Pentagon and CIA custom software development arena. Their combined contracts with the government just for IT are in the multiples of millions. I wonder what the advisory board is filling the CIA’s ear with?
3. Washington “Think Tanks” are fronts for big time lobbies, sophisticated in their operations, claiming non-partisanship, but tremendously influential on K Street. If a lobby cannot buy its way in, why not sit on the advisory board?
4. GE already has the military aircraft jet engine market. In buying Smith’s, it takes one more major defense corporation out of the opposition and further reduces the government’s leverage through competition. GE now joins the other monoliths such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon with tremendous leverage in the $500B +++ per year defense market.
5. Note the synergy that now exists between the Pentagon and the CIA. Note the influence by the major corporations.
6. Also note the balance in your bank account and your aspirations for the generations of the future. Both are going down.
7. The huge Military Industrial Complex (MIC) continues to march. Taxes and national debt will be forced to march straight up the wall to support it. Do you have any “Intelligence” to offer the Pentagon, the CIA and the MIC? For further inspiration please see:
http://www.rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com
February 25th, 2007 at 4:39 am
[…] Cao has already done a splendid job of covering that which I’m discovering on my own from Pelty’s book. But let me add a few observations. It’s hard to say if the eyepatch that Gerry Blackwood was wearing at the screening of Beyond the Call was in order to achieve this look. But it’s humorous to think about it, if only for a moment. […]