1,000 signatures reached
To: President-Elect Biden and US Senators
Tell Biden & Senate: No on Flournoy for Secretary of Defense
Petition Text
We, champions of global peace, urge President-Elect Joe Biden and US Senators to choose a Secretary of Defense free of financial ties to the weapons industry and one who will not escalate a Cold War with China. We reject hawkish Michele Flournoy as a Secretary of Defense.
Why is this important?
It is imperative that we pursue peace and global cooperation in the face of climate catastrophe and human suffering from multiple U.S. wars, occupations and drone attacks.
Flournoy, a Pentagon advisor in the Clinton and Obama administrations, calls for the US to send more military equipment to Saudi Arabia to police the Middle East while the US pivots to Asia to ramp up a Cold War with China. In her essay, “How to Prevent a War with Asia,” Flournoy claims the way to prevent a nuclear confrontation with China is for the U.S. to increase military spending on cyber warfare, artificial intelligence and drones, as well as troop deployments to the South China Sea to conduct roving war games near two nuclear powers, China and North Korea. This is a prescription for tremendous human suffering.
Flournoy supported the surge in Afghanistan, regime change in Syria and the disastrous military intervention in Libya. She sits on the Board of Booz Hamilton, a consultancy for military contractors and during her 2013-2016 tenure with Boston Consulting expanded military contracts from $1.6-$32 million dollars (American Prospect).
It is a fundamental conflict of interest to choose a Secretary of Defense so closely tied to war profiteers.
We need a Secretary of Defense, untethered to the weapons industry, who will embrace diplomacy and reject a new arms race with China.
One possible candidate is Thomas Countryman, Board Chair, Arms Control Association, former United States Assistant secretary of State for International Security and Adviser to Diplomacy Works.
Thank you.