On August 12, the military contractor CACI International Inc. told its investors that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is hurting its profits. The same contractor is also funding a think tank that is concurrently arguing against the withdrawal. This case is worth examining both because it is routine, and because it highlights the venality of our “expert”-military contractor feedback loop, in which private companies use think tanks to rally support for wars they’ll profit from.
The contractor is notorious to those who have followed the scandal of U.S.-led torture in Iraq. CACI International was sued by three Iraqis formerly detained in Abu Ghraib prison who charge that the company’s employees are responsible for directing their torture, including sexual assault and electric shocks. (The suit was brought in 2008 and the case is still ongoing.)
In 2019, CACI International was awarded a nearly $907 million, five-year contract to provide “intelligence operations and analytic support” for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.
During an August 12 earnings call, CACI International noted repeatedly that President Biden’s withdrawal from the 20-year Afghanistan War […]
This has been an ongoing expanding process which has been accelerated by the commercialization of expertise. This type of manipulation of expertise became apparent with the working of the Rand Corporation and the process has metastasized to many other fields: Education, healthcare, etc…The consequence is that the public becomes increasingly skeptical to expertise. This should not be a surprise, it is to be expected.
Totally agree today’s mindset seems to be if it can’t be monetized for maximum profit then it is unimportant. As you note it applies to all aspects that should be for the common good even the latest spiritual experience. “Get closer to God without having an NDE my online course teaches you how only $299.”
One of those time will tell things, though as Albus noted, it’s a “commercialization of expertise” and is alarming. It may have been begun idealistically enough, but it’s too bad think tanks and people who quote the thinkers from them are not obliged to say to what industry they’re linked.