{"id":67687,"date":"2015-12-14T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=67687"},"modified":"2015-12-14T00:43:49","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T00:43:49","slug":"defense-contractors-laud-themselves-for-steering-candidates-toward-militarism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/12\/defense-contractors-laud-themselves-for-steering-candidates-toward-militarism\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense Contractors Laud Themselves for Steering Candidates toward Militarism"},"content":{"rendered":"

11 Dec 2015 – <\/em>A group\u00a0formed<\/a>\u00a0this year by executives and lobbyists for the\u00a0defense contracting industry is taking credit for \u201cdriving the national debate on foreign policy during the 2016 presidential election,\u201d and in particular for getting Republican presidential candidates to call for escalating military action in Syria.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A display of guided missile mock-ups by the Raytheon Company.<\/p><\/div>\n

In an email to supporters over the weekend, Mike Rogers, the founder of Americans for Peace, Prosperity, and Security, hailed the group for \u201cpushing candidates on national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

He illustrated the group\u2019s impact with \u201chighlights from many of our Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire forums showcasing the candidates\u2019 views on defeating ISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Ben Carson at an APPS forum in Dubuque, Iowa: \u201cWe also need to decide, in terms of these radical jihadists, what do we want to do? Do we want to contain them or do we want to destroy them? I vote for the latter, because you know they want to destroy us and there is no such thing as containing people like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at an APPS forum in Charleston:\u00a0\u201cI am sick and tired of hearing people on my side avoid the idea of an American ground component.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Huckabee told an APPS forum in Greenville: \u201cWe should have been running hundreds, if not thousands, of A-10 Warthogs busting every time a truck with supplies was on its way to ISIS soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The email also highlighted a quote from Jeb Bush at an APPS forum calling for the U.S. to be prepared for a \u201clong haul\u201d war on ISIS, and a similar comment from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who said the U.S. should engage ISIS as it had against the Taliban in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve previously\u00a0reported<\/a>, APPS was formed by current and former officials from\u00a0Raytheon,\u00a0BAE Systems, SAIC, and other major defense contractors. Lobbyists who\u00a0represent<\/a>\u00a0the defense industry are also involved. Rogers,\u00a0the former House Intelligence Committee chairman who retired from Congress last year, also represents private clients, though he has\u00a0refused<\/a>\u00a0to disclose them.<\/p>\n

To \u201chelp elect a president who supports American engagement and a strong foreign policy,\u201d the group spends money on public events in primary states and encourages presidential candidates to take hawkish positions.<\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n

Lee Fang<\/a> –\u2709lee.fang@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 Dec 2015 – A group formed this year by executives and lobbyists for the defense contracting industry is taking credit for \u201cdriving the national debate on foreign policy during the 2016 presidential election,\u201d and in particular for getting Republican presidential candidates to call for escalating military action in Syria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-militarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}