ASK DR. BOLI.

Dear Dr. Boli: Why does the United States spend more on defense than China, India, the UK, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea put together? It seems a little excessive to me. —Sincerely, Lloyd J. Austin III.

Dear Sir: It is a general rule among nations that one should spend at least as much on defense as one’s enemies do. Since the ambition of the United States is to make enemies of the entire world, it follows that the defense budget must correspond to that ambition.

Comments

  1. Occasional Correspondent says:

    1.
    We spend that much because we can — some kind of Parkinson’s-Law dynamic at play here.

    2.
    It keeps a chunk of our economy humming along (see also point 1).

    3.
    We took on more alliances than the other countries in the list: eg, UK and Germany involved with each other’s defence via NATO but neither much involved in Japan or S.Korea; Japan undertook no mutual defense responsibilites with India or Saudi Arabia (rather the opposite with China and Russia but backed by US-know-who).  US involved in all the above, and more!, and the bills add up.

    3b.
    Nature abhors a vacuum and the post-WWII vacuum sucked the US in right and tight.  Soviet Union also experienced the suck but after a bit it crumbled under the pressure (see also point 1).

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