Can Carter rein in the Pentagon?
Watch "Fareed Zakaria GPS," Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN
By Fareed Zakaria
Ashton Carter, the President's nominee to be the next defense secretary, is a brilliant man. But by far the best quality he has going for him is that he seems to understand the need to rein in a Pentagon now so out of control that it is difficult to fully comprehend or even explain.
The largest government bureaucracy in the world, the Department of Defense, even after billions of dollars in cuts, now spends about $600 billion a year when everything is added in – that’s more than the entire GDP of Poland. It employs 1.4 million men and women in uniform, 700,000 civilians, and another 700,000 full time contractors. The Pentagon's accounts are so vast and byzantine that it is probably impossible to do a thorough and honest audit of them.
Still, a recent Government Accountability Office report made a valiant effort and concluded that the total budget overruns for current weapons systems stand at nearly $500 billion. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program alone is now around $150 billion over budget. In other words, the cost overruns on one weapons system are more than the total defense budget of Britain and France put together!
In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower warned against the "unwarranted influence" of the "military-industrial complex."
Fifty years later, on December 15, 2011 – to mark the anniversary of Eisenhower's address – a renowned defense expert argued that things had gotten much worse and far more corrupt. Congress had itself been captured by the system, he said, which should now be called "the military-industrial-congressional complex."
Watch the video for the full Take or read the WaPo column
@fareedzakaria on Twitter
Durga Maa can tickle my bollz
Durga Maa can tickle my b ollz.
Lord Rama just f ukked Modi
Modi's a zz was waterboarded by Maoists. LOL
The hindoo muther f ukkers ran away from this forum. A zzholes from India.
There aren't any Hindus on this forum. There are only tired, ignorant trolls such as yourself.
and you are mother theresa? Lol
That would make me not only alive, but RC. 😴
You are more dumb than I reckoned. Om Om Om
Not really. You brought up a dead Indian woman, so I corrected you. I'm not the one that looked dumber than a box of hair.
Sarita, you ARE dumb. Really.
Are you having fun posting all that nastiness under my name. Maybe its electric shock therapy you need. Because i dont think physchiatry will be enough.
Actually, Eisenhower was one of the first big beneficiaries of the MIC. Not as big as Brown&Root Haliburton, but the S. American plantations,Eisenhower owned weren't nothing to sneeze at. Or try to nationalize, if duly elected leader.
Woa. Worlds deadest blog.
You see, American businessmen like Dwight Eisenhower owning plantations in S. America "got smart". They figured if they planted,crops closer together they would make more money. What happened was nature made more insects to counter. Then these businessmen got even smarter: importing African killer bees to kill natures insects. You know the rest of the story, Paul Harvey. Good evening.
Leave my brother out of this.
Modi needs to be put on trial in ICJ for crimes against humanity.
Great article sir! All your Posts are really interested. I love this great website!