World Military Spending

If you have ever wondered just how United States compares to other nations in terms of military spending this may help. Below is a top 10 list of military expenditures along with the budget period associated with these figures:

Country Military Expenditures – in dollars Budget Period

1. World $950 billion 2004 est.
2. World-USA $500 billion 2004 est.
3. United States $466 billion 2004
4. China $65 billion 2004
5. Russia $50 billion N/A
6. France $46.5 billion 2000
7. Japan $44.7 billion 2005
8. Germany $38.8 billion 2002
9. United Kingdom $31.7 billion 2002
10. South Korea $20.82 billion 2005

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm

As you can see the United States alone is spending almost as much as the rest of the world combined. Keep in mind that even though the Cold War ended with the Soviet Union, military costs have continued to rise. I often wonder whether why such a large part of the nation’s budget needs to be spent in such a fashion. The obvious answer is to protect interests and remain a dominant power, but at what point do we bend internally because not enough attention is spent domestically?

Now I would never propose a deep cut in the budget because any change would need to be done in moderation over time. The world’s free democracies need to be slowly integrated into securing regions of the globe, especially when fighting terrorism. The United States can not continue to break international rules and break alliances in an effort to defeat terrorism. This is a strategy that is unrealistic and will only haunt us in the end. To remain the light of the world, we must build and protect our citizens from within. We have infrastructure to upgrade, industries to invest, an education system that continues to fall against other countries, and insecure ports where only 5% of incoming cargo is actually checked for anything that may be harmful to the American people, etc.