The World’s Top 10 Military Spenders
1. United States (FY08 budget), $623 billion
2. China (2004), $65 billion
3. Russia, $50 billion
4. France (2005), $45 billion
5. United Kingdom, $42.8 billion
6. Japan (2007), $41.75 billion
7. Germany (2003), $35.1 billion
8. Italy (2003), $28.2 billion
9. South Korea (2003), $21.1 billion
10. India (2005 est.), $19 billion
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
Data source: TomDispatch.com
cameron : this has to be the most infuriating comment that I have read on here yet!! to think that the U.S is capable of ‘policing’ the world is laughable. They are neither able or capable of doing so! I see America as been the single greatest danger to the stability of world peace. for the simple reason they have the military capability of impacting on a world stage and a war monger president! Of all the countries who have nuclear weapons who is the only country stupid enough to use them against another? That’s right the good old U.S.A!! it will never cease to amaze me how an imbecile could be put in charge of a supper power like the U.S.
From the outsider looking in, America was once this place of great opportunity, where people were treated as equals, where human rights would be protected at all costs, but this is now a distant memory in my head, America are considered bullies by the vast majority of the world, and for this reason they are the most hated country on the planet!!
as for the other imbecile who claims that America is the freest country in the world, tell that to the 37 million “American” who live below the federal poverty limit, i.e. “live in poverty” and while your at it maybe you should thank them for “paying” for your freedoms (or what’s left of them any ways)
China really hides their military spending in other budgets and under reports them. The US is accurate because to say the least it all has to be public information. When you like in China, the modern police state that kind of information is what they want you to know.
China is really estimated to be over $120 Billion to $200 billion.
China has said that they are going to build a deep sea navy, go to the moon, and own us all. They have said economic conquest is the ultimate way to go. We will eventually be fighting over resources in every corner of the globe in a 100 years with them. EU is just going to be happen we can afford great weapons. The EU is still exposed to the middle east and the hordes from Turkey invading Europe. Those Muslims are set to establish a caliphate over Europe.
China’s military power is still far away from others. but i hope there is a great catching up for another decade. in that time, US might finished with Iran, Korea and even Russia and China will be rasing up as last equal power against US. Freedom? Democrast? it only can be established based on a country’s military and economics in 21 century. for 22 century? who knows, it may be only a united global country exist and people in that time might think what we discuss right now is wasting time
@Jack
The United States wasn’t even in the Top 10 Freest Nations on Earth. And here is the ranking:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=389&year=2008
The reason why many Americans believe this is because it is what they are taught and in all reality they don’t have an international perspective. Americans are, in general, in the dark about the rest of the world.
Education will set us free! Education in the U.S.? 32nd, by a shameful admission of our own President Barrack Obama, man of truth, no propagandist, no Rah! Rah! no foot baller’s flags a waving in the breeze! ain’t we great? bull Shiite! Mo guns, Military uniforms, just the truth! - The truth, now swallow it! Yankee Doodle Dandy! Asians get better schooling, Chinese rate well above American schools, and in such squalor, pollution, as to dismay the “Candy Assed”, over-fed, spoiled rotten ,catered to, American student, who only attends sometimes, and never summers! They go year round! - No school-house or teachers talents wasted like us dumb fvcks! Fact is: Without conscription, and permission form OPEC for additional oil to fuel it, the American Military is a fvcking farce! A paper dragon! While China will have no problem manning their forces, but prefer economic war against America! They, and the rest of the world, for that matter, realize that “Nuclear Mutual Destruction” has been a fact of modern day life since the 60’s when even Israel armed itself to the teeth with Nukes! Do you really believe that another nation is going to go to all the trouble of arming up to fight a WWII battlefield style war against anybody in the age of the computer, guided missiles, Nukes, already established? Take your Hummers and stick them up your ass, America! We want economic wars, fought with fair money not your fixed, manipulated, fiat printing-press bullshit you impose on us now! Your fvcking sawbuck has fallen so far as to no longer demand 80% of the worlds goods! You are in a jamb! You cannot point a gun at the whole world and steal what you want! You will have to get off your fat asses and earn it like the rest of us! Compete against a strong Yuan for oil! Lose this battle and all is lost for you! You can no longer play romantic “Police the World” extraction games, Nukes abrogate this lever of power for you! You have already lost your ‘edge” and save for mutual destruction, can no longer bully the poorer nations for ransoms! Now: Go get a job! - a paying job! and be satisfied with your rightful share of resources, you greedy bastards!
[...] think that I have heard these statistics in some form some where, but I just came across this at ecoscraps. The United States spends $623 billion on defense, coming in at number one in the world. The next [...]