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Arms Race To Extinction Comment by Larry Ross, May 22, 2007
Here are some valuable facts about the US defence expenditures and the rising US arms trade. As Frida Berrigan points out "The US alone spends what the rest of the world combined devotes to military expenditures" What is the US defence budget? Is it only the $481 billion requested by the Whitehouse? Or should other defence costs be added to this total in order to give a more balanced picture? Such added costs as the US nuclear weapons program -$17 billion. Iraq and Afghanistan wars $ 142 billion. Miscellaneous defence costs $5 billion. Grand total of $647 billion. If you add more invisible costs such as cost impact of Iraq war on global oil prices and lowered consumption of US goods and services by people in other nations, and long-term health care for wounded US veterans the price can rise to between 1 trillion and $2.2 trillion. There are other monetary and social costs not mentioned below such as the cost of pollution and environmental degradation from US wars; the costs to a nation and people of becoming increasingly dependent on defence and arms trade expenditures; the costs of increased political and social corruption due to the high profit arms trade; the costs to the American culture and future of employing an increasing number of academic, scientific brains by the arms and defence industries. In simplistic terms that means that a brain which might have conceived and developed some brilliant new socially useful device, has been employed to conceive of brilliant new killing devices instead. Also the costs of arsenals of chemical, bacteriological and nuclear weapons and the cost of DU weapons use in Iraq, producing a lethal radioactive dust that has a half life of 4.5 billion years and gradually blows around the world spreading death by cancers and damaging genes, causing deformed and handicapped children in countless thousands of people. That will be an increasing cost over thousands of years to come. It is little wonder the defence and arms industry prefers to operate in the shadows, and covers up the destructive and costly effects of its trade.
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US Takes Gold in Arms Olympics by Frida Berrigan and Tom Engelhardt, May 21, 2007
Hey, aren't we the most exceptional nation in history? George Bush and his pals thought so – and they were in a great American tradition of exceptionalism. Of course, they were imagining us as the most exceptional empire in history (or maybe at the end of it), the ultimate New Rome. Anyway, explain this to me: Among all the exceptional things we claim to do, how come we never take credit for what may be the most exceptional of all, our success of successes, the thing that makes us uniquely ourselves on this war-ridden planet – peddling more arms to Earthlings than anyone else in the neighborhood? Why do we hide this rare talent under a bushel? In the interest of shining a proud light on an underrated national skill, I asked Frida Berrigan to return the United States to its rightful place in the Pantheon of arms-dealing nations. Tom We're # 1! A Nation of Firsts Arms the World T hey don't call us the sole superpower for nothing. Paul Wolfowitz might be looking for a new job right now, but the term he used to describe the pervasiveness of U.S. might back when he was a mere deputy secretary of defense – hyperpower – still fits the bill. Face it, the United States is a proud nation of firsts. Among them: First in Oil Consumption: The United States burns up 20.7 million barrels per day, the equivalent of the oil consumption of China, Japan, Germany, Russia, and India combined. First in Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Each year, world polluters pump 24,126,416,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the environment. The United States and its territories are responsible for 5.8 billion metric tons of this, more than China (3.3 billion), Russia (1.4 billion), and India (1.2 billion) combined. First in External Debt: The United States owes $10.040 trillion, nearly a quarter of the global debt total of $44 trillion. First in Military Expenditures: The White House has requested $481 billion for the Department of Defense for 2008, but this huge figure does not come close to representing total U.S. military expenditures projected for the coming year. To get a sense of the resources allocated to the military, the costs of the global war on terrorism, of the building, refurbishing, or maintaining of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and other expenses also need to be factored in. Military analyst Winslow Wheeler did the math recently: "Add $142 billion to cover the anticipated costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; add $17 billion requested for nuclear weapons costs in the Department of Energy; add another $5 billion for miscellaneous defense costs in other agencies … and you get a grand total of $647 billion for 2008." |
