Why is the United States military budget almost equal the entire world's military spending?
Our country makes-up 46.5% of military spending in the world. China makes-up 6.6% and Russia makes-up 3.5%. Here is a graph that shows global military spending: http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending#InContextUSMilitarySpendingVersusRestoftheWorld No wonder the U,S. has a 14 trillion dollar deficit, we have been doing this type of outrageous spending since 2001. I think the war on terror is an over-inflated threat. At least when their was a cold war, the threat met world nuclear annhilation. Probably all the terrorist organizations put together can't come up with a billion dollars. We have already spent 1.147 trillion dollars on the Iraqi and Afghanistan war. Here is a website for those wars: http://costofwar.com/en/ It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why the U.S. has such a high deficit. If we would have had politicians with common sense, we would never have been in this debacle. As a country, we need to stop all this unecessary spending on the military and use the money to make our country great once again. This war in Afghanistan bankrupt the USSR and will bankrupt us next. All the way back to Alexander the Great, the people of Afghanistan have been fighting somebody, and after the U.S. they will be fighting somebody. Why should the U.S. waste the lives of our young and all that money to fight a threat that will be there long after we leave? This terror threat is more nonsense than valid. We can do the same with a tomahawk missile, than deploying American soldiers at a reduced cost. Why isn't the U.S. military budget greatly reduced and used for programs such as job creation and fixing America's infrastructure?
Government - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Because we're too busy butting into other country's problems and spending money elsewhere before taking care of business at home.
2 :
I wonder too. Besides the U.S. is not ten times more secure than any other country and any major operations that the U.S. military have attempted from Somalia through Yugoslavia to Afghanistan and Iraq have not ended in decisively positive results. Maybe U.S. foreign policy needs more brains not more weapons. Perhaps some of that money can buy some.
3 :
A combination of the accident of history, the nation's own interests, our economy, and a certain level of national pride/stubbornness. 1) Accident of History - I am referring of course to the end of WW2 and the beginning of the Cold War. Russia's ascent during WW2 combined with the total decimation of Western Europe meant that following the war, the US was the ONLY western nation left intact to counterbalance Russia's desire to spread communism across the globe. The US had just ramped up to superpower status to meet the challenge of WW2 and was in a truly unique position where for the first time in its history, ramping down and returning to our neutral isolationist mode was not seen as prudent. 2) Our Interests - The fact is that the Pax Americana that results from the US superpower status is a HUGE economic win for us and everyone else. Without the US securing shipping lanes and creating a common security guarantee for trading partners, we almost certainly would not see the global economy having grown like it has in the last 50 years or more. We almost certainly would not have seen OUR economy grow like it has. We almost certainly would have seen more large scale, multi-nation wars that would likely draw other participants in and risk larger wars. Do we benefit enough to offset the cost? Mmmmm, hard to say. I doubt it. But we definitely have higher revenues due to these expenses. 3) Economy - The fact is that the US economy has been the most consistently fast-growing on the planet these last 60 years. Yes, the last couple years were rough, and certainly recent developing nations look strong, but they've been doing it for a fraction of the time. No economy can afford it like we can. Indeed, many European states spend almost nothing on military and are STILL bordering on loan defaults (see recent Euro zone troubles). If not for us, they would have to spend on their own militaries. 4) Price/Stubbornness - The fact is that while the national character of the US traditionally was isolationist, we had a job that only we could do, and by national character we were not going to shirk it. Now that the emergency of those early years and even the cold war are behind us, I think alot of Americans would like to walk away from this job. But who will pick up the slack? Likely no one, and we take a certain pride in doing the job that needs to be done. I also think that our national character has changed somewhat during this era of superpowerdom. I think the US citizens take pride in being the global policeman.
