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Military Spending Is Destroying the World
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Al-Alam Arabic News Channel: A new cold war is looming. The global arms war has reached its highest levels in history. Military expenditures have reached $2 trillion $443 billion in the year 2023 across the five continents including the Middle East. These are record numbers. The Stockholm International Institute for Peace Research has revealed that the global military burden increased to 2.3% last year, with the rate of military spending as a percentage of government spending rising to 6.9%, and global military spending per capita reaching $309.
Washington has allocated more than one-third of the total global military expenditure for itself, around $916 billion—the highest expenditure in the world. China ranks a distant second with about $300 billion, surpassing Russia and India, while Saudi Arabia ranked first regionally and fifth globally with $76 billion, ahead of the Israeli entity.
The reports attributed this increase to the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the brutal aggression on Gaza that led to a hike in Israel's military expenditures, as well as rising geopolitical tensions in Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East.
Experts see the increase in the military expenditure as a reaction to the ongoing deterioration of global security. They warn of the danger of entering a spiral of action and reaction in light of an increasingly fragile global geopolitical and security system. Will these governments be drawn into unintended conflicts as a result of this arms sale?
That was our report. And we are going to the questions right now.
The report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute offered some figures for 2023. The USA, for example, spent $916 billion in military spending. China, $296 billion. Russia, $109 billion. India, $83.6 billion. Saudi Arabia, $75.8 billion. The Israeli entity ranked 15th with military expenditures exceeding 27 billion dollars—a 24% increase compared to 2022 due to the brutal aggression on Gaza. Iran ranked 33rd, according to Stockholm Institute, with an expenditure of only $10 billion.
We will discuss this subject with Professor Kevin Barrett. Good evening and welcome to our program. According to this report, there are two main factors in the increasing in the military budgets for those countries: The war in Ukraine and the brutal aggression on Gaza. What's the common point and the role of the United States in this phenomenon?
Both the war on Russia through Ukraine and the genocidal war against Gaza and Palestine are supported by the United States empire in general, and the neoconservatives in particular. They are extremist warmongers who are dedicated to keeping the United States empire in a position of unilateral hegemony. But that is impossible because of changes in the global economy and the spread of technology.
So we have a collapsing empire, the Zionist American empire, waging a preemptive global war to preserve its dominance. And that's the link between Ukraine and occupied Palestine, and also the increasing tensions in the South China Sea.
Professor, the United States has 40% of global military expenditures. Do you think this expenditure is necessary for the national security of America? How can we justify this expenditure by the United States of America?
The enormous military expenditure by the United States is largely a kind of subsidy to a corrupt military industrial complex, specifically the shareholders and executives of the corrupt corporations, and the bribed and profiteering generals and military people