Can Ashton Carter Rein In A Pentagon Out Of Control? -- Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post
Chuck Hagel may not have been able to work with the ever more powerful National Security Council staff, but this discussion of personalities misses the point. The key to success for a defense secretary today is the ability to manage not White House aides but rather the Pentagon, which is the world’s most complicated and most dysfunctional bureaucracy. Ashton Carter, the president’s presumed choice as the next secretary, is a brilliant man and perhaps has made some friends at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. 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 explain.
Republicans worry a great deal about dysfunction in government. They launch investigations to find out why a few hundred million dollars were wasted and insist that departments do more with less. Except for the largest government bureaucracy in the world, the Defense Department, which spends about $600 billion a year — more than the entire GDP of Poland — and employs 1.4 million men and women in uniform, 700,000 civilians and 700,000 full-time contractors. The Pentagon’s accounts are so vast and byzantine that it is probably impossible to do a thorough audit of them.
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My Comment: Fareed Zakaria takes Congress and the Pentagon leadership to task for the mess at the Pentagon .... but I am not surprise that he did not even mention once that maybe .... just maybe .... after being in the White House for 6 years .... his friend .... President Obama .... be also held responsible for a little of this mess.
I guess I am asking for too much.
2 comments:
Dear editor...you may be right but if so tell why
Thank you for your comment Fred. I was being critical of the media coverage and more specifically on Fareed Zakaria's commentary. The impression that I am having as an outsider .... is that being in the sixth year of his Presidency much of the main stream media is now more focused on protecting his legacy and to excusing his failures .... and not covering the real problems that exist today. Fareed Zakaria's post just validates all of this .... and that is why I posted it up.
On a personal note .... the U.S. Department of Defense has been in need of reform for as long as I can remember .... but every President has failed .... and President Obama has not been an exception of this rule. This is a disappointment .... he is the President and Commander in Chief and he was positioned .... especially in the first two years when his allies had super majorities in the Senate and Congress .... to start at least the first steps in needed reform. Unfortunately .... his focus was elsewhere, and we are now seeing the consequences of this where the perception (rightly or wrongly) is that the U.S. military and U.S. foreign policy influence is now in the decline.
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