I remember General Barry McCaffrey well. I was at a National Prevention Network conference in Buffalo when he gave a speech to the conference. McCaffrey, as you will recall, was the drug czar for the Clinton administration, placed in charge of solving the drug problem and expected to direct the national effort to rid the nation of the curse of people putting various substances into their bodies and getting high.

It was an imperial entrance, complete with lictors, aids, praetorian guards, and lacked only a flourish of trumpets from Aïda to complete the effect. He ascended to the stage, delivered several platitudes clothed in the language of the masters of the Universe, and then made a ceremonial exit. I was both offended and amused that anyone took this pompous ass seriously.

The tune that went through my head was the Liberty Bell March.

Now Barry McCaffrey has made the front page of the New York Times, but not on behalf of the drug war. Having been retained by those heavily invested in the Iraq war, he has now become an exemplar of the old-boy, back-scratching, profiteering, arms-selling military-industrial complex. using his rank and connections to advance the interest of his clients.

What the NYT doesn’t say is that this is a routine, repeated over and over in Washington, D.C., that makes millions, nay billions, for the entrepreneurs that play the game the right way.

And where does all this money come from? Yourselves, the taxpayers. Enjoy the fireworks, chumps.

Tags: McCaffery