Un aspect int\u00e9ressant de l’\u00e9volution du Complexe, dont on f\u00eate le cinquantenaire de l’intronisation (discours du 17 janvier 1961<\/a> du pr\u00e9sident Eisenhower), est l’entreprise de reclassement des chefs militaires (g\u00e9n\u00e9raux et amiraux) dans la vie civile apr\u00e8s leur mise \u00e0 la retraite. Janine R. Wedel et Linda Keenan viennent de publier un livre (Shadow Elite<\/em>) qui pr\u00e9sente une enqu\u00eate sur cette \u00e9volution. Elles ont publi\u00e9 le 13 janvier 2011<\/a>, sur le site HuffingtonPost<\/em>, un article traitant de ce probl\u00e8me.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abA real culture shift seems to have occurred among some in the military elite, and it mirrors my (Janine’s) findings in Shadow Elite, which show a decline in loyalty to institutions such as government. Even in a place like the military, where devotion to the institution is paramount, many of the top players are focused on turning themselves into one-man defense industry moguls, some of them angling for personal rewards even before official retirement. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island a West Point grad said this to Bryan Bender of the Boston Globe: When I was an officer in the 1970s, most general officers went off to some sunny place and retired….Now the definition of success … is to move on and become successful in the business world.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbBender’s must-read investigation just after Christmas examines the activities of the staggering numbers of top generals who retire to highly lucrative consulting or defense industry work. (This tracks alongside the trend in which more and more governing is outside of formal government and, where, for instance, three-quarters of people working for federal government are private contractors.) Lest one think the \u00ab\u00a0rent-a-general\u00a0\u00bb phenomenon is old news, Bender shows that this longtime trend seems to be accelerating:<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbFrom 2004 through 2008, 80 percent of retiring three- and four-star officers went to work as consultants or defense executives…[also known as] the ‘rent-a-general’ business…That compares with less than 50 percent who followed that path a decade earlier, from 1994 to 1998.<\/em> [In 2007,] thirty-four out of 39 three- and four-star generals and admirals who retired…are now working in defense roles nearly 90 percent.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbNot only do these generals and admirals profit from their years of privileged access to vital information and connections, but they also receive the deference accorded to them because of their service and those stars. Bender says this automatic deference continues after retirement, with generals often treated in advisory meetings as if they are still holding official roles.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tL’article met \u00e9galement en \u00e9vidence l’extension du domaine de la lutte (ou de l’influence) des chefs militaires retrait\u00e9s, vers le monde du syst\u00e8me de la communication, avec l’influence qui va avec. Ce point vaut \u00e0 certains de rebaptiser le Complexe en y ajoutant aux dimension militaire et industrielle celle de la communication.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abAmplifying their power, these generals are also in hot demand as media analysts. And according to a 2008 New York Times report, [m]ost of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air. Journalist David Barstow later that year painted an indelible portrait in the Times of retired four-star Army General Barry McCaffrey, his swirl of defense consulting activities, and his success in promoting his interests on television: Barstow called it One Man’s Military-Industrial-Media Complex.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbThe influence of McCaffrey and his peers derives from their overlapping, mutually influencing, and perhaps not fully disclosed, roles in pursuit of their own agendas. As they carve out coincidences of interest, their roles morph and blur into one another and ambiguity swirls around their activities.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n Toutes ces informations ne sont aucunement des r\u00e9v\u00e9lations mais, rassembl\u00e9es et synth\u00e9tis\u00e9es, elles donnent effectivement un constat g\u00e9n\u00e9ral d’un changement fondamental dans le r\u00f4le, la structure et l’extension du Complexe, A real culture shift<\/em>, comme il est \u00e9crit. Les chiffres statistiques mentionn\u00e9s rendent compte sans aucune ambigu\u00eft\u00e9 possible de cet \u00e9norme d\u00e9placement d’orientation et d’activit\u00e9, lorsqu’on constate qu’en dix ans le nombre d’officiers g\u00e9n\u00e9raux \u00e0 la retraite se reclassant dans des activit\u00e9s civiles de pouvoir et d’influence est pass\u00e9 de 50% \u00e0 80%, avec 90% dans la seule ann\u00e9e 2007, qui est la derni\u00e8re ann\u00e9e de r\u00e9f\u00e9rence.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tD’autre part, la double orientation maintenant \u00e9vidente de ce reclassement (la communication s’\u00e9tant ajout\u00e9e \u00e0 l’industrie pure) a \u00e9galement une profonde signification et un puissant impact. On ne peut plus simplement appr\u00e9cier ce reclassement, ou ce blanchiment des militaires dans le civil, comme une simple op\u00e9ration d’int\u00e9r\u00eat pour ceux qui la font, mais comme une op\u00e9ration id\u00e9ologique de renforcement du pouvoir et de l’influence du Complexe dans le syst\u00e8me de l’am\u00e9ricanisme en tant que tel, et, partant, dans le Syst\u00e8me en g\u00e9n\u00e9ral. (Cette op\u00e9ration n’est pas le r\u00e9sultat d’une organisation, d’un dessein, d’un complot, mais le simple effet de la dynamique de la puissance et de l’influence psychologique d’un syst\u00e8me anthropotechnocratique incomparablement homog\u00e8ne.) Les militaires \u00e0 la retraite ne s’int\u00e8grent pas dans le Syst\u00e8me, ils changent le Syst\u00e8me au profit du Complexe ; eux-m\u00eames ne sont plus militaires (au sens de soldat) que de nom, \u00e9tant devenus des carri\u00e9ristes uniquement pr\u00e9occup\u00e9s de faire co\u00efncider leurs int\u00e9r\u00eats avec les int\u00e9r\u00eats du Complexe<\/p>\n<\/p>\nNotre commentaire<\/h4>\n