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Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince

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Re: Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince

#161

Post by MichaelZuo »

aerostable_slug wrote: post #157
MichaelZuo wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was originally responding to your comment that: 'The security agreements they signed are sufficient to guard national secrets.' High ranking officers can just as much buy plane tickets as anyone else. Yes, including to countries that may not have entirely harmless intentions. Signatures on a piece of paper are not the final arbiter of disputes between countries, as demonstrated by the previous administration. Even…

And I was responding to the idea that a retirement package is a meaningful protection against espionage. Even if a cleared military member gets nothing after their separation (perhaps do to a court martial or the like), there's still no justification in spying, especially not after the agreements and acknowledgements cleared individuals sign throughout their careers. Those documents are what put convicted spies in pl…

Okay, so then it seems you replied to the wrong comment with your prior comment. Since that is a different topic.

Re: Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince

#162

Post by boomskats »

P_I_Staker wrote: post #152
boomskats wrote: post #121

How is this different to the Saudi crown prince hiring MPRI, DynCorp, or any other US private military company that largely employs retired US army personnel?

This is much worse

> Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince

#163

Post by Der_Einzige »

djbebs wrote: post #160
Der_Einzige wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iraq 1 was justified imho

So justified they had to lie about babies in incubators to do it, right?

I'm sorry, I'm pretty sure you're talking about a max headroom episode...

Re: Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince

#164

Post by aerostable_slug »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #161
aerostable_slug wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I was responding to the idea that a retirement package is a meaningful protection against espionage. Even if a cleared military member gets nothing after their separation (perhaps do to a court martial or the like), there's still no justification in spying, especially not after the agreements and acknowledgements cleared individuals sign throughout their careers. Those documents are what put convicted spies in pl…

Okay, so then it seems you replied to the wrong comment with your prior comment. Since that is a different topic.

This is what I replied to:

>Non-competes should include compensation commensurate for the non-compete period. In the case of these individuals is the retirement package not sufficient to guard national secrets?

Re: Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince

#165

Post by MichaelZuo »

aerostable_slug wrote: post #164
MichaelZuo wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, so then it seems you replied to the wrong comment with your prior comment. Since that is a different topic.

This is what I replied to: >Non-competes should include compensation commensurate for the non-compete period. In the case of these individuals is the retirement package not sufficient to guard national secrets?

This was the strange comment I was referring to:

"You honestly think an American flag officer would defect to Saudi Arabia? Really? Russia, China, or Iran would be a far "better" choice for a number of reasons, chiefly the fact that the Saudis might turn the turncoat back over to the US for any number of reasons — like pulling American maintenance contractors out of KSA, which would ground their air force in a matter of days and leave them very vulnerable to Iranian aggression. Hell, without contractor representatives giving them cues I wonder if they can really run some of the gear we've sold them. Besides, if I'm going to be stuck in one dictatorship for the rest of my life (because you could never safely travel again), I'd pick somewhere like Iran over KSA in a second."

Which seems to be aimed at addressing a different topic.

Re: Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince

#166

Post by boruto »

edgefield wrote: post #14
basementcat wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sort of thing isn’t all that unusual. John Paul Jones, whom many regard as the "father" of the United States Navy, served as a rear admiral for the Imperial Russian Navy after he retired from the US Navy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones

Perhaps not unusual, but ethical? That’s a different matter. A former US general working for a theocratic, monarchy with a deeply concerning history on human rights raises some serious red flags in my mind.

> a deeply concerning history on human rights raises some serious red flags in my mind.

Working for dictatorship is not worse than bombing innocent children in name of working for oldest democracy

Re: Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince

#167

Post by jdhdjdjdhekeie »

kelnos wrote: post #117
nosianu wrote: post #57

Also just today: BBC headline "Ex-UK pilots lured to help Chinese military, MoD says" https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63293582 With more background info: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/is-china-really-using-... Some highlights from the BBC article: > Former British military pilots are being lured to China with large sums of money to pass on their expertise to the Chinese military, it is claimed. > Up to 30 former…

It's weird to me that it's legal for former military members of one country to be employed by another for any military purpose at all, without the express approval of the home country.

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