No. of Recommendations: 11
When a major goal is to overhaul the moribund inefficient Pentagon procurement processes, necessary to rebuild our military, then the simpatico arrangement between the Generals and Defense contractors must be degraded. Breaking those bonds necessarily requires a degree of "out with the old".
Ignoring the fact that you jumped from DEI and COVID shots to procurement...wait...we can't ignore it, because it's a completely different topic.
If you want to talk procurement, and the MIC, that is a huge can of worms. I totally agree with you that generals shouldn't be able to join military contractors (in any capacity) once they retire. Purging the ranks will not stop that practice, nor address procurement in any way. In fact, it may just hasten some senior officers to take positions with military contractors earlier than they expected. And, without laws preventing it, the new batch of Pentagon officers will almost certainly perpetuate the same behaviors (you know the contractors will continue to provide the same inducements).
And pretty much all of those officers you want to purge rose to those ranks on merit, whether or not they ended up on boards of military contractors when they retired. So a purge is the completely wrong approach. Just pass a law that anyone involved with procurement can never work for a defense contractor in any role, nor accept payment from them for anything ("consultant", or "advisory", or whatever). THAT is how you address that problem.
