U.S. MILITARY IN PERSPECTIVE


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 Macedonia 0.1    
113 Senegal 0.1    
114 Cambodia 0.1    
115 Mali 0.1    
116 Nepal 0.1    
117 Dem. Rep. 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 0.1    
133 Niger 0.0    
134 Malta 0.0    
135 Burundi 0.0    
136 Swaziland 0.0    
137 Lesotho 0.0    
138 Burma 0.0    
139 Fiji 0.0    
140 Tajikistan 0.0    
141 Nicaragua 0.0    
142 Jamaica 0.0    
143 Togo 0.0    
144 Djibouti 0.0    
145 Iceland 0.0    
146 Haiti 0.0    
147 Mongolia 0.0    
148 Somalia 0.0    
149 Tanzania 0.0    
150 Mauritania 0.0    
151 Kyrgyzstan 0.0    
152 Belize 0.0    
153 Papua New Guinea 0.0    
154 Central African Republic 0.0    
155 Malawi 0.0    
156 Seychelles 0.0    
157 Sierra Leone 0.0    
158 Comoros 0.0    
159 Mauritius 0.0    
160 Laos 0.0    
161 Guinea-Bissau 0.0    
162 Moldova 0.0    
163 Bhutan 0.0    
164 Suriname 0.0    
165 Cape Verde 0.0    
166 Guyana 0.0    
167 East Timor 0.0    
168 Bermuda 0.0    
169 The Gambia 0.0    
170 San Marino 0.0    
171 São Tomé & Príncipe 0.0    
172 Costa Rica 0.0    
173 Grenada 0.0    
174 Kiribati 0.0    
175 Liechtenstein 0.0    
176 Marshall Islands 0.0    
177 Micronesia 0.0    
178 Nauru 0.0    
179 Palau 0.0    
180 Saint Lucia 0.0    
181 St. Vincent & the Grenadines 0.0    
182 Samoa 0.0    
183 Solomon Islands 0.0    
184 Tuvalu 0.0    
185 Vatican City 0.0    

Note: Figures are for 2010 or most recently available





Many countries go to war, but the United States of America 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 five 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!




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 nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars on its military each year. If veterans' benefits and interest payments on the debt are included, the figure is closer to $1.5 trillion.

The U.S. alone is responsible for close to half of the world's military spending and spends more than 50 times as much as the combined spending of the so-called rogue states: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.

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:

  • Atttempted to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, most of which were democratically-elected
  • Carried out over 200 military operations in which it has struck the first blow
  • Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries
  • Waged war/military action, either directly or by proxy, in some 30 countries
  • Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders
  • Dropped bombs on the people of some 30 countries
  • Suppressed dozens of populist/nationalist movements in every corner of the world

By its actions, U.S. foreign policy seeks not only to secure its own borders but to dominate the rest of the world. The United States has a global military presence unlike that of any other country in history. Since the end of WWII, the U.S. has killed over 20 million people in numerous wars and conflicts throughout the world.



Map of US Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII


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, achieved by:
    1. the promotion of a system of relatively unregulated free enterprise that allows capital to flow freely to all parts of the world
    2. a system of trade that places as few barriers as possible in the way of the ability of multinational corporations to access raw materials, labour, productive facilities and markets in all parts of the world
  • preventing the development of any society that might serve as a successful example of an alternative to the capitalist model
  • extending political and economic control over as wide an area as possible
  • preventing any challengers from emerging that might threaten U.S. military supremacy

U.S. troops sometimes remain as an occupying army after invading, enforcing U.S. dictates and putting down local protests and rebellions. 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." The list of those declared to be an "enemy" or a "terrorist" 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. Thousands of troops are stationed at strategic locations to be deployed into military action. With unparalleled naval and air forces, the U.S. possesses a unique capacity to act militarily anywhere in the world if it so chooses.

In addition to 4500 military bases on its own territory, the U.S. has more than 1000 bases in over 50 countries. Of these foreign bases, 760 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 or civilians – stationed in over 150 countries worldwide.



Map of the US Military Footprint on the World






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. set up over 100 military bases throughout the country of which at least 14 will remain permanently.





The U.S. Department of Defense is the world's largest landlord with over half a million buildings and structures located on nearly 5,000 sites, covering more than 185 million square metres of space worldwide. The actual number is likely much higher, as many Pentagon facilities are kept secret. The U.S. is currently in negotiations for additional sites and bases in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The U.S. military is the single biggest polluter in the world, with no concern for the environmental impact of its operations. In the Status of Forces Agreements that it signs with nations around the world, the U.S. government generally insists on exemption from environmental regulations and categorically renounces any responsibility for cleaning up the pollution that its military produces or leaves behind when it pulls out. On its own soil and in U.S. territories and coastal waters, the U.S. military has been exempted from almost all EPA regulations.





September 11, 2001

For most of its history, the true costs of the wars the U.S. waged overseas had 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.

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), supporting Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, and imposing U.S. dictates on the Middle East through violence and brutal economic sanctions.

The September 11 attacks were a response to decades of U.S. violence perpetrated against the people of the Middle East. The intended targets – the World Trade Center, the White House, and the Pentagon – were the centres of U.S. commerce, government, and military power. The message was clear: stop imposing economic, political, and military control on the people and resources of the Middle East.





"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









1998 interview with Osama bin Laden





Instead of reconsidering its foreign policy, the U.S. responded to the attacks with more violence. But the War on Terrorism cannot possibly end terrorism. Even though bin Laden is no longer a threat, continued U.S. aggression will encourage others to drive the U.S. out of the Middle East, inspiring more acts of terrorism.

Homeland defense has become a justification for eliminating civil rights protections long deemed inconvenient by the FBI and other police agencies. The Pentagon and the CIA now have a much 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" – a term that can be applied to any act of resistence to U.S. domination.



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 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, news media in the U.S. 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. Washington policy-makers often claim that foreign interventions are necessary to protect "our interests" but the news media seldom ask what those interests are and who is actually served by them.





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...






As demonstrated in Libya, Haiti, Nicaragua, and numerous 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 major 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 "War on Terrorism" is really a global war against all those who oppose U.S. control of the planet.

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 refer to such acts "terrorism" – or describe U.S. foreign policy as "aggressive" – as long as government and military leaders proclaim they have noble intentions. 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.