NO, BUT BOTH ILLUSTRATE OUR CRONYIST, SELF-DECEIVING, CORRUPT RULING CLASS: Did Theranos Lose Afghanistan?
The San Jose courtroom where Holmes is being tried is a long way from Kabul, where U.S. citizens are still being evacuated following the withdrawal of American forces last month.
But there’s a tighter link than meets the eye. Like the Afghanistan debacle, Theranos is a horror story of wishful thinking, credulous media, and celebrity impunity. Whether or not intentional deception was involved, both episodes display the dishonesty and incompetence of interlocking tech, finance, media, and military elites.
The connection is personal. Among the expected witnesses in the trial is former Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, who fought in Afghanistan as a brigadier general, later oversaw the war as head of Central Command, and finally served as former President Donald Trump’s secretary of defense. Mattis became involved with Theranos while still in uniform. After retiring from the armed forces, Mattis joined Henry Kissinger, George P. Shultz, and other national security eminences on Theranos’ board, lending the company a gravitas that few startups enjoy.
Mattis denies any wrongdoing, claiming he was taken in, too. Even if that’s true, his role is discreditable. Mattis’ association with the company began in 2011, when he met Holmes at a Marine Memorial event in San Francisco. According to author John Carreyrou and other journalists, he immediately began campaigning for military adoption of Theranos’ ostensibly innovative bloodtesting technology. Mattis was not deterred by the lack of FDA approval and mounting doubts about whether the technology actually worked. After his retirement in 2013, Mattis also ignored legal advice that it would be improper to join the board while the company was seeking procurement of its products for use in Afghanistan.
Our “warrior monk” also hasn’t been heard on the Afghanistan debacle, though he was happy to express his displeasure regarding Trump.
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Finally, the overlap between Theranos and Afghanistan demonstrates both the interlocking character of the American ruling class and the impunity that its members enjoy until their conduct becomes literally criminal. The same people who make decisions in Washington end up sitting on the same boards in Silicon Valley and appearing on the same New York-based cable channels. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not such a big deal that Mattis suffered few consequences for his involvement with Theranos. It’s hugely important, though, that he and other celebrity officers were not only promoted for their roles in losing a two-decade war, but that they continue to be celebrated and richly compensated as authors, management consultants, and national security wisemen.
In his farewell speech as president, Dwight Eisenhower worried about the influence of the “military-industrial complex.” The entanglement continues, as retired officers continue to take lucrative positions with defence contractors. Over the last 70 years, though, “the blob” has extended its tentacles into finance, the media, academia, and beyond.
Consequences are for the little people. And Eisenhower actually did warn about the academic-industrial complex in that speech, too.