Ben Hodges was the head of the US Army in Europe (2014-2018) and now is a walking, talking embodiment of the worst aspects of the military-industrial complex.
He’s a familiar face on Deutsche Welle as he is on American TV, like this brand new appearance, in which (according to the YouTube blurb) “retired US Army officer Ben Hodges discusses German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's announcement that there are British troops in Ukraine before the UK has announced it, and why it seems inadvisable for Scholz to rule out Germany sending its own troops to Ukraine.” (1)
It’s nice that a retired senior officer is offering the public his expert advice. Oh, he also currently works for Republic Consulting LLC, which among other things does defense work. (2) Which DW News here fails to mention - though it does tell us he now lives in Frankfurt and was in Washington for a “security conference.” Whether he was there as a tourist or on business for Republic Consulting isn’t mentioned.
As a practical matter, European countries are focusing on the need to boster their own defense capabilities. But with a mostly private defense industry, there really is big money to be made by private companies and investors from weapons expenditures by governments using public money. This is a notoriously risky arrangement and something that is by no means brand new.
But responsible news agencies should be explicit when they are interviewing former military officials who are presently working for defense lobbying firms. Because not doing so allows people representing a narrow private-person image to pass themselves off as though they are offering their patriotic advice out of a sense of public service.
Funny, I’ve never heard former Gen. Hodges speak about risks of excessive militarism.
In this interview, like most we see, neither DW News nor their distinguished guest mention that Ukraine is not a member of NATO. And he scoffs at the risk of direct NATO conflict with Russia. “Make the Russians worry about it,” he says. The Russians claim - not implausibly - that worry about Ukraine becoming a NATO member was a major reason for their military aggression against Ukraine since 2014. Russian military action in that case has been very profitable for defense industries and their lobbying firms. For the people of Ukraine, it mostly sucks.
Just after 9:14 in the video, DW’s Ines Pohl asks him about Putin’s response to French President Macron’s comment by reminding NATO that Russia has lots of weapons they can use in a war.
Pohl: “Vladimir Putin was very clear. He said if you send in troops, I will give you a nuclear answer.”
What Putin said was, "Western nations) must realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don't they get that?!" (3)
I suppose “I will give you a nuclear answer” is a fair if imprecise paraphrase of that.
France 24 goes on to observe, “The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Putin has previously warned of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.”
Pohl asks our boy Lobbyist Ben, “How serious is this threat?” Lobbyist Ben responds, “Zero. This is what Russia does because they see how easily rattled we are when they talk about, they might use a nuclear weapon. I mean, we have been deterring ourself [sic] for years.”
One might think that Lobbyist Ben was briefed back in the days when he was commanding the US Army in Europe on how this whole nuclear deterrence thing works. But he probably gets different briefings at Republic Consulting.
Hodges goes on near the end of the segment to suggest that the Rooskies were behind the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
News outlets need to be better at identifying their interview subjects that just helping war lobbyists pass themselves off as concerned citizens drawing on their previous professional experience.
Notes:
(1) 'Boots on the ground should not be be off the table' Ben Hodges interview. DW News YouTube channel 03/01/2024. (Accessed: 2024-01-03).
(2) See my earlier post: Ben Hodges, former general who now works for a defense lobbyist firm ... 06/28/2023.
(3) Putin says West risks nuclear war if NATO sends troops to Ukraine. France 24 02/29/2024). <https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240229-putin-says-west-risks-nuclear-war-nato-troops-ukraine-russia> (Accessed: 2024-01-03).
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