This is appalling. And there’s a lot more to the article–check it out.
Simply put, my tax dollars are being used to train military personnel who are then profiting off the training by using that expertise to help repressive, brutal tyrants around the world.
That’s gotta stop.
There is no advantage to me as a US citizen to this practice. There is no advantage to us in having the government fight the journalists researching this topic. There is no advantage to the world to having US military knowhow be purchased by the likes of [edited to remove brain fart] Saudi Prince bin Salman al Saud.
And yes, I know the US military has a lot of brutality in its history, and I am in no way shocked that there is gambling on these premises. But this should be an easy, uncontroversial fix. For starters, no nation- with a serious record of human rights abuses should be able to hire retired US military personnel, full stop. And the violation of this law should be a felony, with significant enforcement power.
To preface, if there were a blanket rule of “no hiring yourself out to foreign governments,” I think that’d be a just fine rule. Or if the approval rate were in the low single digits, or if there had to be a really good fuckin’ rationale for a case before it were considered, we’d be good.
That said, stipulating that Israel has ongoing human rights violations, no, they shouldn’t be eligible any more than Saudi Arabia should be. The United Kingdom, though? Do they have a serious current record of human rights violations, especially a record that involves their current military?
The word “ongoing” is an important word, and I’m happy to include that in my claim.
It’s a moot point - Israel has no need to import U.S. military personnel, as that happens to be one resource the country has no shortage of. Are you familiar with the phrase, “coal to Newcastle”?
Certainly Israel has no need of former senior US military for their martial training, talents, or experiences. As you say, they’ve got plenty of their own world class folks.
An interesting and probably unanswerable question about all of these military ex-pat jobs and workers whether in Israel or elsewhere, is how much the local government is hiring the person for their supposed “connections” back home as a way to obtain soft flavors of intel as well as access to the right ears to whisper into.
If that’s the real attraction: a backchannel to/from the Pentagon, the White House, and the US military-industrial complex, then only a genuine US military former bigwig can fill that bill.
Now that the Sauds have signed up with Putin to fuck us over on gas prices, the next shipment should be sent with the pointy-end forward. See how they like it when they’re treated like they treat others.
If you want to take up arms for a foreign government, or otherwise use your U.S. militrary training on their behalf, renounce your U.S. citizenship, and go. This country isn’t a prison.
As for keeping your service retirement pay after that – probably not.
So we can sell military supplies for billions to countries with human rights abuses, but our vastly underpaid soldiers can’t work for those same governments?
We can pay them more if underpayment is the problem.
One way to do what the OP suggests is to do what Biden did to the Chinese chip manufacturers just last week: tell every American working for a targeted company that they can have their job or their US Citizenship, but they can’t have both:
Same principle, targeting autocratic powers, sure, I have no problem with the OP’s idea.
Special rules for specific occupational abilities are not unheard of. Doctors have certain obligations to care for the wounded, under the law, regardless of whether they’re on the job, ever going to get paid, or otherwise. I believe that former soldiers also always have the chance to get called back into active duty.
That said, I do think that the norm that you should have full knowledge of what you’re getting into, ahead of time, is reasonable. If you started a career with the impression that you could take your knowledge and go freely peddle it, afterward, then it’s somewhat unreasonable for us to change the rules on you, right under your feet. But, saying that anyone new to join up is going to have a limit on what they can do after they retire seems reasonable.
But, that said again, if you asked soldiers how many of them joined with the intention of being able to peddle their ability to kill others righteously, to foreign powers, that number is probably pretty tiny. Likewise, the majority of them are going to be young enough that shutting off that avenue is far from dooming them to destitution.
I’d probably grant a special exception to those who were currently serving and over the age of 50. Otherwise, it’s not allowed no more and never more.
One is ex US military using their skills to take other jobs. Frankly, i have no issue with that. The military trained them for its own purposes, and once it no longer needed them, they should be free to use those skills to make money, just like everyone else.
The other is US citizens working for tyrants. I do see grounds to say that you can’t work for North Korean and keep your US citizenship, for instance. Or maybe the US wants to ban citizens from using certain skills for certain other countries. But i really don’t think it’s relevant whether those people obtained their skills in the military or by working for some private contractor. Employers shouldn’t own employees after they move on. Not even the military.
As a senior, try getting a job you do not have massive experience in.
Sure. And if the Military had a rule you could not be a consultant for a foreign nation when retired, fine. But our guys also consult for Australia, Canada, and others. KSA is not an enemy, they are any ally.
OFAC regs would probably prohibit that- at least you will have huge issues getting any funds in or out. But the KSA is not on the OFAC prohibited list.