Reading his weekly column for The Washington Post as per his standard introductory monologue on GPS, Fareed Zakaria presented himself as concerned about wasteful government spending – at the Pentagon.
“None of the difficulties the United States has faced over the past 25 years has been in any way because its military was too small or weak,” asserted Zakaria as axiomatic.
Taxpayer funding for programs ostensibly pursuing foreign aid and development – occasionally referred to derisively as nation building – should be dramatically increased, implied Zakaria. He quoted former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: “One of the most important lessons of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that military success is not sufficient to win … Long-term success [requires] economic development, institution-building . . . [and] good governance. [We need] a dramatic increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national security, [including] diplomacy [and] foreign assistance.”
Zakaria noted America’s defense spending relative to Russia (higher by a multiple of nine) and China (higher by a multitude of three). He made no mention of America’s per capita income – and its commensurate increase in living costs – relative to Russia (higher by a multitude of seven) and China (higher by a multitude of six). Also ignored by Zakaria are America’s greater global security commitments relative to Russia and China.
The Pentagon represents the “poster child for waste in government,” said Zakaria, describing it as running a “cradle-to-grave, quasi-socialist system.” He has never made such commentary regarding the State Department or any other federal bureaucracy.
Marie Harf, formerly a communications operative of the Obama adminstration’s State Department, somewhat echoed Zakaria’s narrative in early 2015. Speaking with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Hardball, she declared that victory over Islamic terrorists could not be won via military means: “We cannot kill our way out of this war.”
Harf also claimed that economic development amounted to a counterterrorism strategy, pushing the neo-Marxist narrative of terrorism (Islamic or otherwise) as a function of economic inequality and/or hardship.
Anthony Blinken, former deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration, also called for a counterterrorism strategy predicated on foreign aid. He also accused then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of fomenting “violent extremism” among Muslims via political campaign statements.
Zakaria presents himself as an objective, honest, and non-partisan expert of international relations and global political economy. CNN likewise presents itself as an objective, honest, and non-partisan news media outlet. In its promotional materials, CNN describes itself as “The Most Trusted Name In News.”
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