U.S. MILITARY IN PERSPECTIVE


Many countries go to war, but the United States is unique in both the size and power of its military and its propensity to use it.

Since the end of WWII, the U.S. has spent more than $20 trillion to build up its military might. This is more than the cumulative monetary value of all human-made wealth in the United States.




The U.S. government has spent more on its military over the last four decades than the value of all the houses, office buildings, factories, schools, hospitals, airports, hotels, shopping centres, power plants, machinery, water and sewage systems, roads, bridges, railroads, etc., in the United States put together!



The U.S. alone is responsible for close to half of the world's military spending and spends more than 60 times as much as the combined spending of the so-called "rogue states," Iran and North Korea.

Adding up the current Pentagon budget, the nuclear weapons budget of the Energy Department, the military portion of the NASA budget, foreign military "aid" and other military-related expenses, the U.S. spends close to three-quarters of a trillion dollars on its military each year.

More than 50% of the U.S. government's annual discretionary spending - the money the President and Congress have direct control over - goes to the military. By comparison, 7% goes to education and 6% to healthcare. Cutbacks in social programs have caused far more devastation in the U.S. than any foreign army ever has.



Foreign Interventions

Every few years, the U.S. sends soldiers, warships, and warplanes to fight in distant countries. Since the end of WWII, the U.S. has carried out over 200 military operations in which it has struck the first blow. The U.S. government also finances, arms, and directs local "proxy" militias to fight on its behalf to overthrow governments not compliant to "U.S. interests." 

Many of the governments overthrown by the U.S. were democratically-elected, including Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Brazil in 1964, Chile in 1973, and Haiti in 2004. In 2002 the CIA was involved in orchestrating an unsuccessful coup to overthrow the democratically-elected socialist government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The U.S. continues to challenge his right to govern despite the overwhelming support of the populace.

Foreign military interventions usually serve the interests of global corporate investment, regardless of the human and ecological costs to the region. Rather than being guided by a devotion to moral principles of any kind, they serve to fulfill the following objectives:

  • making the world safe for U.S. corporations
  • preventing the development of any society that might serve as a successful example of an alternative to the capitalist model
  • extending political and economic hegemony over as wide an area as possible
  • repaying defence contractors who have contributed generously to members of Congress

In many countries, U.S. troops have remained as an occupying army after invading, enforcing U.S. dictates and putting down local protests and rebellions. The list of those declared to be "enemies" and "terrorists" has included many people fighting for democracy in their country - like Nelson Mandela.



Military Bases

U.S. control over most of the planet is supported by an integrated network of military bases and installations which covers all the continents, oceans, and outer space. Hundreds of thousands of troops are stationed at strategic locations to be deployed into military action.

In addition to 4500 military bases on its own territory, the U.S. has more than 1000 bases in over 130 countries. Of these foreign bases, 761 are acknowledged by the Pentagon and at least 300 more are known to exist, many of them espionage bases. In total, the U.S. has military personnel - combatants and civilians - stationed in over 150 countries worldwide.




Following its bombing of Iraq in 1991, the U.S. acquired military bases in:
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Kuwait
  • Bahrain
  • Qatar
  • Oman
  • United Arab Emirates

Following its bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the U.S. acquired military bases in:
  • Kosovo
  • Albania
  • Bulgaria
  • Macedonia
  • Hungary
  • Bosnia
  • Croatia

Following its bombing of Afghanistan in 2001-2, the U.S. acquired military bases in:
  • Afghanistan
  • Pakistan
  • Kazakhstan
  • Uzbekistan
  • Tajikistan
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Georgia
  • Yemen
  • Djibouti

Following its bombing and occupation of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. has set up over 100 military bases throughout the country of which at least 14 will remain permanently.




September 11, 2001

Few people anywhere in the world - including the Middle East - support bin Laden's terrorist methods. But they share his anger at the U.S. for supporting corrupt dictators (including Saddam Hussain during his worst crimes), for supporting Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, and for imposing U.S. dictates on the Middle East through violence and brutal economic sanctions.

Until recently, the true costs of the wars the U.S. has waged overseas have largely been hidden. U.S. taxpayers had to pay the military bills but the death and destruction was all overseas. That changed on September 11 - for the first time, the violence reached the U.S.




What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation (the Islamic world) has been tasting this humiliation and degradation for more than 80 years. Its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked and no one hears and no one heeds. Millions of innocent children are being killed in Iraq without committing any sins....

To America, I say only a few words to it and its people. I swear to God, who has elevated the skies without pillars, neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of security before we live it here in Palestine and not before all the infidel armies leave the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him.

- Osama bin Laden,  October 7, 2001



The September 11 attacks were a response to years of U.S. violence. The "war on terrorism" cannot possibly end terrorism. Even if bin Laden is killed, continued U.S. aggression will encourage others to drive the U.S. out of the Middle East, inspiring more terrorist attacks on Americans.

"Homeland defense" has become a pretext for eliminating civil rights protections long deemed inconvenient by the FBI and other police agencies. The Pentagon and the CIA now have a freer hand in carrying out wars and violent covert operations around the world. The U.S. military has been handed practically a blank cheque to fight "terrorism" - the name applied to all acts of resistence to U.S. conquest and domination.




The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity... The country behind this propaganda is the U.S.

- Robin Cook,  former British Foreign Secretary




Corporate News Media

Corporate-controlled news media in the U.S. are businesses just like any other - they make a profit by selling a product to a buyer. The product is an audience and the buyer is another business. In effect, large corporations sell audiences to other large corporations. The product is you, as a viewer of media content and a consumer. To avoid alienating the buyer of their product - other corporations - the major news media generally conceal from their viewing audience the corporate interests behind much of U.S. government policy, especially foreign policy.

Despite claims that the press has an adversarial relationship with the government, the news media generally follow Washington's official line. The spectrum of debate falls in the relatively narrow range between the leadership of the Democratic and Republican parties. While Washington policy-makers assert that U.S. overseas interventions are necessary to protect "our interests," the news media seldom ask what "our interests" are, and who is actually served by them.

As demonstrated in Afghanistan, Haiti, Nicaragua, and many other countries, defending U.S. interests usually means imposing neoliberal capitalist ecomonic policies on nations that might strike a course independent of, or unfriendly to, transnational corporate investment. This is never the reason given in corporate-owned news media. Rather, it is always a matter of "stopping aggression," "protecting national security," or punishing leaders who are said to be dictators, drug dealers, or state terrorists.

The major news media expose little about the U.S. role in financing, equipping, training, and directing the repressive military forces in countries around the world. Many of the CIA's "covert operations" - bombings, assassinations, paramilitary massacres - are terrorism by any definition. Yet major news media will never call such acts "terrorism" - or describe U.S. foreign policy as "aggressive" - as long as governemnt and military leaders proclaim they have noble intentions.

The use of military force in overthrowing foreign governments is referred to by news media as "regime change" while similar action by a government not compliant to the U.S. would be described as a "violent coup" or an "overthrow." The media in the U.S. will sometimes criticize their government's foreign policy as "ill-defined" or "overextended" but never as lacking in virtuous intent.





Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran's president has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, "Israel must be wiped off the map." Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made...




Annual Military Spending
US$ billion       
1 United States 713.1     
2 China 70.4     
3 France 62.6     
4 United Kingdom 62.4     
5 Japan 53.1     
6 Germany 43.4     
7 Russia 38.2     
8 Italy 31.1     
9 Saudi Arabia 31.1     
10 India 30.2     
11 South Korea 28.5     
12 Brazil 24.0     
13 Australia 23.0     
14 Canada 19.0     
15 Spain 19.0     
16 Turkey 14.0     
17 Israel 13.3     
18 Netherlands 12.0     
19 Poland 11.8     
20 Taiwan 10.5     
21 Greece 8.0     
22 Singapore 7.9     
23 Colombia 7.8     
24 Singapore 7.8     
25 Sweden 6.3     
26 Iran 6.3     
27 Mexico 6.1     
28 Norway 5.7     
29 North Korea 5.5     
30 Chile 5.2     
31 Iraq 5.0     
32 Thailand 5.0     
33 Algeria 5.0     
34 Peru 4.9     
35 Indonesia 4.7     
36 Morocco 4.1     
37 South Africa 4.1     
38 Belgium 4.0     
39 Venezuela 4.0     
40 Finland 3.7     
41 Portugal 3.5     
42 Egypt 3.3     
43 Denmark 3.3     
44 Vietnam 3.2     
45 Kuwait 3.0     
46 Austria 3.0     
47 Romania 2.9     
48 Czech Republic 2.8     
49 Argentina 2.6     
50 Switzerland 2.5     
51 Azerbaijan 2.5     
52 Ukraine 2.1     
53 Angola 2.0     
54 Ecuador 1.7     
55 Malaysia 1.7     
56 Sri Lanka 1.6     
57 United Arab Emirates 1.6     
58 New Zealand 1.5     
59 Slovakia 1.4     
60 Jordan 1.4     
61 Hungary 1.4     
62 Philippines 1.3     
63 Buglaria 1.3     
64 Libya 1.3     
65 Ireland 1.3     
66 Serbia 1.2     
67 Croatia 1.1     
68 Yemen 1.0     
69 Syria 0.9     
70 Bangladesh 0.8     
71 Georgia 0.8     
72 Nigeria 0.7     
73 Qatar 0.7     
74 Cuba 0.7     
75 Bahrain 0.6     
76 Lithuania 0.6     
77 Sudan 0.6     
78 Lebanon 0.5     
79 Armenia 0.5     
80 Belarus 0.4     
81 Ethiopia 0.4     
82 Cyprus 0.4     
83 Uruguay 0.4     
84 Slovenia 0.4     
85 Tunisia 0.4     
86 Madagascar 0.3     
87 Botswana 0.3     
88 Brunei 0.3     
89 Kenya 0.3     
90 Estonia 0.3     
91 Oman 0.2     
92 Côte d'Ivoire 0.2     
93 Albania 0.2     
94 Bosnia & Herzegovina 0.2     
95 Luxembourg 0.2     
96 Cameroon 0.2     
97 Kazakhstan 0.2     
98 Eritrea 0.2     
99 Uzbekistan 0.2     
100 Uganda 0.2     
101 Dominican Republic 0.2     
102 Guatemala 0.2     
103 Elsalvador 0.2     
104 Equatorial Guinea 0.2     
105 Panama 0.2     
106 Namibia 0.1     
107 Bolivia 0.1     
108 Zimbabwe 0.1     
109 Afghanistan 0.1     
110 Zambia 0.1     
111 Guinea 0.1     
112 Repbublic of Macedonia 0.1     
113 Senegal 0.1     
114 Cambodia 0.1     
115 Mali 0.1     
116 Nepal 0.1     
117 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.1     
118 Benin 0.1     
119 Honuras 0.1     
120 Turkmenistan 0.1     
121 Latvia 0.1     
122 Congo 0.1     
123 Ghana 0.1     
124 Costa Rica 0.1     
125 Mozambique 0.1     
126 Burkino Faso 0.1     
127 Chad 0.1     
128 Liberia 0.1     
129 Trinidad & Tobago 0.1     
130 Rwanda 0.1     
131 Paraguay 0.1     
132 Maldives 0.05   
133 Niger 0.04   
134 Malta 0.04   
135 Burundi 0.04   
136 Swaziland 0.04   
137 Lesotho 0.04   
138 Burma 0.04   
139 Fiji 0.04   
140 Tajikistan 0.04   
141 Nicaragua 0.03   
142 Jamaica 0.03   
143 Togo 0.03   
144 Djibouti 0.03   
145 Iceland 0.03   
146 Haiti 0.03   
147 Mongolia 0.02   
148 Somalia 0.02   
149 Tanzania 0.02   
150 Mauritania 0.02   
151 Kyrgyzstan 0.02   
152 Belize 0.02   
153 Papua New Guinea 0.02   
154 Central African Republic 0.02   
155 Malawi 0.02   
156 Seychelles 0.01   
157 Sierra Leone 0.01   
158 Comoros 0.01   
159 Mauritius 0.01   
160 Laos 0.01   
161 Guinea-Bissau 0.01   
162 Moldova 0.01   
163 Bhutan 0.01   
164 Suriname 0.01   
165 Cape Verde 0.01   
166 Guyana 0.01   
167 East Timor 0.004 
168 Bermuda 0.004 
169 The Gambia 0.002 
170 San Marino 0.001 
171 São Tomé & Príncipe 0.001 

Note: Figures are for 2010 or most recently available.