US Increasing Its Military Dominance, Reports Show

[sassa]

U.S. Increasing Its Military Dominance, Reports Show

Fri Jun 21,11:26 AM ET

Jim Lobe,OneWorld US

Led by sharp increases in the United States defense budget, particularly since last September 11, the world appears to be on a course toward growing militarization, according to recent reports on global military trends.

Military expenditures around the world increased by about two percent in real terms last year, to some $839 billion dollars, according to a statement Thursday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), based on findings published in its latest Yearbook.

While still significantly below global highs reached in the mid-1980s, SIPRI noted that last year's figure was still fully seven percent more than in 1998 when global military spending reached its lowest level since the end of the Cold War.

Moreover, there is little question that the total will rise substantially this year and in 2003 as the U.S. presses other countries, especially among its NATO ( news - web sites) allies, to increase their own defense budgets as part of the war against terrorism. The report noted that China, Taiwan, and India--that have all increased military spending significantly in recent years--have also become the world's biggest arms importers.

Washington, which accounted for 36 percent of total military spending last year--six times greater than Russia and equal to more than twice as much as the combined defense budgets of Russia, France, Japan, and Britain, the next four biggest spenders--is planning to increase its defense budget by some $45 billion next year, to a total of $396 billion, according to the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation (CACNP).

That means the United States will be spending more on its military capabilities than much of the rest of the world combined.

By itself, next year's increase is more than three times the combined defense budgets ($13 billion) of Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea ( news - web sites), Cuba, Sudan, and Syria--all of the countries which appear on the state department's terrorism list--and is nearly twice as much as the entire state department budget, including food and foreign military aid ($23.9 million), according to CACNP, formerly known as Council for a Livable World.

"Our military budget is greater than the [combined] gross domestic product (GDP ( news - web sites)) of Austria, Belgium Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Norway, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Venezuela," said CACNP.

U.S. military dominance grew steadily after the end of the Cold War, as Russia, its closest competitor collapsed, while Washington's European allies in NATO all reduced spending significantly.

Its supremacy as a strategic objective was most recently stated by President George W. Bush ( news - web sites), who stated in this year's commencement exercises at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, "America has, and intends to keep, military strengths beyond challenge."

In its Yearbook, however, SIPRI suggested that Washington's military dominance was not a guarantee of security and may, in fact, create risks of its own.

U.S. "preponderance," according to the editor of the 800-page volume, Adam Daniel Rotfeld, "both tempts and permits the USA to act unilaterally. However, security is based on interdependence rather than independence or preponderance."

"The world needs the USA as never before, but the USA needs the rest of the world, too," Rotfeld continued, "neither domination and hegemony nor neo-isolationism offer an adequate response to the new challenges."

The report also noted that the world's 15 most deadly conflicts in 2001 were all primarily internal political or ethnic struggles rather than inter-state wars that are covered by well-established international rules of engagement and are more susceptible to the use of conventional military power. In a number of cases, the root causes of these conflicts were related to the collapse of the state, a phenomenon which defies traditional military solutions.

In such cases, according to the authors, preventive strategies may be far more effective, yet the war on terrorism and the way it is being carried out threatens to "undermine the entire notion of conflict prevention."

Moreover, Washington's current approach to anti-terrorist cooperation in key countries with repressive governments--by bolstering the military, police, and intelligence services--may make it more difficult to persuade their leaders to implement democratic reforms that could make them more stable in the long run, according to the report.

[tribal]

for this kind of money, we should have robo soldiers or something. i dont feel like its necessarily a good thing, an inflated military has tremendous risks on its own. and who is going to pay for all this? wouldnt some of this money be better used for education or foreign aid??

oh and why is Cuba on the terrorism list? what groups do they sponsor?

[nabuc1]

Originally posted by tribal

for this kind of money, we should have robo soldiers or something. i dont feel like its necessarily a good thing, an inflated military has tremendous risks on its own. and who is going to pay for all this? wouldnt some of this money be better used for education or foreign aid??

oh and why is Cuba on the terrorism list? what groups do they sponsor?

Cuba is on the list for political reasons. During the Cold War era, Castro did help fund Communist revolutionaries in South America and in Africa. Cuba in no way should be on that list. The Cuban government does not and has not in many years funded any type of terrorist or revolutionary group. It is simply because Cuba is still a strictly run Communist regime.

[georgym]

This military escalation can only lead to bad vibes...

Think if you were a nation other than the United States. Always staring up to this behemoth, having unlimited military power, economic dominance, and influences on numerous scales.

Smaller nations are going to be more and more threatened by the US extending it's power, and will resort to either creating more weapons themselves, or designing powerful weapons of mass destruction to counter our power.

Like Tribal said, we should focus more on domestic issues, like poverty and education.

"We don't need no more stinkin' bombs"

[sassa]

tell this to bush the moron and his cabinet....sometimes i feel really scared about how this world is going to turn out....it's getting worse and worse...we are not improving in the areas necessary...such a shame.

[tribal]

tell this to bush the moron and his cabinet....sometimes i feel really scared about how this world is going to turn out....it's getting worse and worse...we are not improving in the areas necessary...such a shame.

ok see, i dont think its that simple. US actions are critisised by everyone from the arab nations to the european left, yet the policy and control burden is all on US shoulders, which is completely ridiculous. wheres the much needed and necessary critisism of arab nations, the real problem here.

look, how can you expect them not to live like shit and be angry, when their societies are oppressed, uneducated and strewn with religious dogma. i think we should concentrate more on reforming these states, with international pressure and aid, rather than constantly bashing bush and US for all the world's ills. its simply preposterous. bush is a walking chimp, but i have to say this though, while the european intellectuals sit on their ass and debate whats right and whats wrong, he went in, knocked out the taliban, and will bring saddam down next. how many of you can say that afganistan is worse off today than a year ago? none i think.

[tribal]

tell this to bush the moron and his cabinet....sometimes i feel really scared about how this world is going to turn out....it's getting worse and worse...we are not improving in the areas necessary...such a shame.

ok see, i dont think its that simple. US actions are critisised by everyone from the arab nations to the european left, yet the policy and control burden is all on US shoulders, which is completely ridiculous. wheres the much needed and necessary critisism of arab nations, the real problem here.

look, how can you expect them not to live like shit and be angry, when their societies are oppressed, uneducated and strewn with religious dogma. i think we should concentrate more on reforming these states, with international pressure and aid, rather than constantly bashing bush and US for all the world's ills. its simply preposterous. bush is a walking chimp, but i have to say this though, while the european intellectuals sit on their ass and debate whats right and whats wrong, he went in, knocked out the taliban, and will bring saddam down next. how many of you can say that afganistan is worse off today than a year ago? none i think.

[igloo]

Originally posted by sassa

tell this to bush the moron and his cabinet....sometimes i feel really scared about how this world is going to turn out....it's getting worse and worse...we are not improving in the areas necessary...such a shame.

moron

[tribal]

igloo, you are like a bad case of ass itch that just wont go away. man, you are a cartoon character.

[igloo]

Perhaps if you pull yourself out of Sassa's rotted ass, you will both come to the realization that you and repulsive Sassa are simply not as intelligent as you both think you are....

Could be my mistake though- since both of you lived in parts outside of the U.S., you have to be smarter than anyone else- right?

Fucking idiots

[sassa]

Originally posted by igloo

moron

hey, look what crawled out from under the shit! someone step on this miserable cockroach before he infects something...

[igloo]

Originally posted by sassa

hey, look what crawled out from under the shit! someone step on this miserable cockroach before he infects something...

As long as you spew your bullshit- I will be right there to let you know what a true imbecile you really are...

jerkoff