hated
12-23-2015, 11:38 AM
The Conscience of an Arms Dealer: How a Bombed Airport in Yemen and My Year With Rand Paul Made Me Quit the Pentagon
The flight from Dubai to Sana’a was a quiet one. Our team was travelling in the dead of night, partly for operational security concerns, partly to get the cheapest fare and save the Pentagon a few dollars. The plane was half empty and those on board were sleeping to the hum of the engines.
Below me was the pitch-black desolation of the Rub al-Khali, the massive desert encompassing the southern portion of Saudi Arabia that forms the natural border between the kingdom and her southern neighbors, Yemen and Oman. It was an ocean of sand with nothing for hundreds of miles in every direction. As I sat there, exhausted but unable to sleep, I had no idea how this mission would tie into the catalyst that would lead to my resignation from the U.S. government in frustration and disgust.
Read on: http://sofrep.com/45308/conscience-arms-dealer-bombed-airport-yemen-year-rand-paul-made-quit-pentagon/
[Guest post by Greg Archetto who is a former State Department and Defense Department official who specializes in security cooperation issues in the Middle East. He has a BA in Political Science from Rowan University, a Masters of Public Administration from Rutgers University, and a Masters of National Security/Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College. He quit the arms business when he discovered there was more sand and fewer women than in the movies and is now an independent consultant with One World Consortium LLC. You can find more of his writings athttp://humanevents.com/search/archetto and www.thereasonablerepublican.com (http://www.thereasonablerepublican.com/).]
The flight from Dubai to Sana’a was a quiet one. Our team was travelling in the dead of night, partly for operational security concerns, partly to get the cheapest fare and save the Pentagon a few dollars. The plane was half empty and those on board were sleeping to the hum of the engines.
Below me was the pitch-black desolation of the Rub al-Khali, the massive desert encompassing the southern portion of Saudi Arabia that forms the natural border between the kingdom and her southern neighbors, Yemen and Oman. It was an ocean of sand with nothing for hundreds of miles in every direction. As I sat there, exhausted but unable to sleep, I had no idea how this mission would tie into the catalyst that would lead to my resignation from the U.S. government in frustration and disgust.
Read on: http://sofrep.com/45308/conscience-arms-dealer-bombed-airport-yemen-year-rand-paul-made-quit-pentagon/
[Guest post by Greg Archetto who is a former State Department and Defense Department official who specializes in security cooperation issues in the Middle East. He has a BA in Political Science from Rowan University, a Masters of Public Administration from Rutgers University, and a Masters of National Security/Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College. He quit the arms business when he discovered there was more sand and fewer women than in the movies and is now an independent consultant with One World Consortium LLC. You can find more of his writings athttp://humanevents.com/search/archetto and www.thereasonablerepublican.com (http://www.thereasonablerepublican.com/).]