Celebrate the Facts!
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The US spends more on defense than the next 10 countries combined. Depending on the definition of a military base there are between 400 and 800 US military bases in 150 foreign countries – there are 200 countries in the world. By any definition, the United States is an empire. The US military presence is intended not only for defense – to fence in Russia and China - but also to secure supply lines and markets and support friendly governments. Highlights of the 2020 budget include:
Military spending makes up about 16% of entire federal spending and about half of discretionary spending. This commitment was 3.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018 which is consistent with historic rates – levels of expenditures generally rise under Republican Administrations and stay level during Democratic but are still enormous. This percentage does not include military-related non-Department of Defense spending, such as Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, interest paid on debt incurred in past wars, or qualitative social costs such as physical and psychological disabilities of veterans. US defense spending has increased markedly during the Trump Administration – an increase of about 15% in the 2020 budget compared to the 2016 budget. Regardless of tribal media spin, 85 US Senators voted for those increases so there was bipartisan agreement and largely has been. By contrast, the Russian Federation’s 2018 expenditures were only about 9.5% that of the US, about 3.9% of a rather small economy (the 10th largest in the world). Despite the huge disparity in investment, the Russian Federation has done quite well since 2014 and has remained internationally relevant using a combination of opportunistic projection of traditional power and asymmetric warfare strategies:
China has a significant military but devotes a smaller percentage of GDP – 1.9% in 2018 - of a smaller economy and has also utilized low-cost high-value strategies to enhance their position:
Perhaps the Russians and Chinese have succeeded simply because they were compelled to due to limited resources. Their new asymmetric strategies are not muddled by troublesome election cycles – both have autocratic leaders who will likely be in power for decades and each has a strategic vision. Achieving those goals by increments in accord with a long-term strategy, chipping away, corroding established relations, inching into new territory and markets, sometimes at a seemingly glacial pace, but effective over horizons envisioned as decades.
Due to higher debt service on immense deficits accrued through tax cuts and coronavirus-related costs, the next budget debates will center on reductions of costs, and the defense budget will get a great deal of scrutiny, regardless of the bipartisan acclamation of the huge recent budget increases. Still, at 3.2% of GDP (2018), the costs are in line with historical values. Cyberwarfare techniques have the possibility of starting and winning a war without firing a shot pose a huge threat, shutting down the ability to communicate with planes and ships, shutting down utilities, Internet communication, financial markets, and other vital resources. Perhaps the bigger discussion should be about how we spend our money – more expensive and perhaps outmoded weapons and planes or more intelligent expenditures:
The reference for the number of US military bases was derived from an article in The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-united-states-probably-has-more-foreign-military-bases-than-any-other-people-nation-or-empire-in-history). Data on military expenditures was sourced from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex) and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation (https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison). Data on current US defense expenditures were collected from the US Defense Department (https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2079489/dod-releases-fiscal-year-2021-budget-proposal). Information on Chinese industrial espionage was presented by The National Interest (https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/china-knows-all-about-f-35-and-f-22-thanks-data-it-stole-61912). Information on the Russian Federation presence in Libya was provided by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (https://www.csis.org/analysis/moscows-next-front-russias-expanding-military-footprint-libya).
2 Comments
JLee
7/30/2020 11:01:16 am
Top notch and insight report.
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InvestigatorMichael Donnelly investigates societal concerns with an untribal approach - to limit the discussion to the facts derived from primary sources so the reader can make more informed decisions. Archives
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