Monday, April 14, 2014

Global military spending has dropped


In part because of reduced US spending because of the winding down of the George W Bush Memorial Wars. In spite of increased military spending by other countries, the US is still #1 by a factor of 10. W00T!
Total global military spending declined for the second straight year in 2013 because of cuts in the United States and much of the West — but expenditures steadily rose in the rest of the world, especially Africa and the Middle East, international monitors said in a report released Sunday.

Military spending outside the West grew by 1.8 percent in 2013, putting the worldwide total at about $1.7 trillion, according the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a nongovernmental organization that monitors conflicts around the world.

“The increase in military spending in emerging and developing countries continues unabated,” Sam Perlo-Freeman, one of the authors of the report, said in a news release.

In the U.S., the decline in military spending — down 7.8 percent in 2013 to $630 billion — came as costs dropped after skyrocketing during years of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reductions came out of Overseas Contingency Operations, which funded those two conflicts, and from across-the-board cuts mandated by Congress and initiated last year.

But despite those cuts U.S. spending still dwarfs that of other countries — and though it is likely to decline further in 2014, it is still expected to exceed $500 billion.

The SIPRI data shows that total U.S. spending in 2013 was roughly equal to the next nine top global spenders combined, and accounted for 37 percent of all global aggregate military spending, compared to 11 percent for second-place China, and 5 percent for third-place Russia. And even as the United States cut military spending last year its top two rivals raised theirs, with China’s up 7.4 percent and Russia’s up 4.8 percent.

Military spending also rose in other areas outside the West, which the report defined as North America, Oceania, and Western and Central Europe.

The region with the largest increase was Africa, where spending increased 8.3 percent to $44.9 billion — almost a quarter of which was racked up by Algeria, which the report said has continued to steadily militarize because of a "desire for regional power status, the powerful role of the military, the threat of terrorism — including from armed Islamist groups in neighboring Mali — and the ready availability of oil funds."

Spending also jumped in the Middle East, by 4 percent to $150 billion —continuing a trend that saw a 56 percent increase between 2004 and 2013.
Anybody who thinks an empire comes cheap or can be made to pay for itself need only ask the British about that. The good side is that soon the 1% will need to make jobs for the serfs so they can be taxed to pay for this. God forbid the 1% pony up any extra change.

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