Military Might and Our Nation's Future

Time magazine just came out with a report on military expenditures of nations and to no surprise the United States government took home the title of top spender. In fact, our government spends more money each year on its military than do all the other nations of the world combined. It is this kind of commitment that keeps us from achieving greatness in medicine, education, and technology and allows smaller nations to surpass in far too many other areas.

Over the last decade, military spending increased 81 percent to 687 billion dollars and when politicians tell you it’s a result of fighting terrorism, they’re wrong. France, England, Japan, and Russia have all had to deal with the growing threat of terrorism and yet they have kept down spending on the military. Only Russia, whose spending represents 4.3 percent of its GDP, comes close to our current level of 4.7 percent. And the rate of our increase, 81 percent, is no where close to the rate of inflation this past decade.

Iran, one of our biggest worries, only budgets 1.8 percent of its GDP on the military, down 18 percent from 2001. However, our Middle East watch dog and faithful arms buyer, Saudi Arabia, increased their spending by 63 percent since 9/11 and we still do not understand why other nations view us as a military threat.

China, with the fastest growing economy in the world, increased their military spending by a staggering 189 percent this past decade and yet it still only accounts for 2.2 percent of their GDP. The United States needs to find a way to bring down its level of spending to be more in line with our European allies or rivals from Asia if we are going to remain an economic power. We simply can not maintain the current levels.

Once we bring military spending in line, we will then be able to tap into financial resources to challenge other nations on the scientific, academic, and technological fronts. To do this means we have to be willing to allow other nations to shoulder the responsibility of policing the world. As it is, we are dangerously close to only having our military services and might to offer up to other nations in exchange for their superiority in manufacturing, technology, energy, and research.

It may well be that the future of the world will be split up among nations who share their particular superiority with others in exchange for services they no longer produce. If it comes to that, we may have to rely on our military services in exchange for the energy, technology, and overall ingenuity we once were noted for.