Previous perspectives

By Olive Branch

How can there be a financial crisis when the countries of the world spent $1.4 trillion on military expenses in 2010? The arms business, at least, is booming.

Admittedly, not all of these trillions of dollars and euros are spent on weapons. For soldiers, there are salaries to pay, as well as housing, food, uniforms, training and the logistics involved in moving them from one place to another. But it all serves a purpose, one can argue: It keeps the young from adding to the unemployment rolls.

The United States is supposedly the No. 1 economy in the world. It is also No. 1 in military spending, with $698 billion spent in just one year (2010), according to the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research, which monitors military sales and spending. That’s 42 percent of the world’s military budgets. 

When you consider the more than 700 bases, installations, target areas, research and development, nuclear arms, manned planes, unmanned planes, intelligence operations and combat readiness, it doesn’t come cheap. If libraries and parks have to close, if schools have their budgets cut and jobs get shipped overseas, at least you’ll know you are safer with the military looking out for you.

In second place is China, with $14 billion in military expenditures to keep their million-man army trained, equipped and ready to roll should they be attacked by Taiwan, which is down the list at 19th place with a spindly $15 billion budget. But why should they worry? They have the U.S. to rescue them should there be threats from across the Taiwan Strait.

France is in third place with $61.3 billion in military spending, needed to defend the peace in Libya, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and other places with armed force. Similarly, the United Kingdom is in fourth place with $57.4 billion. Empire lingers on.

No. 8 is Saudi Arabia with $39 billion, or 11 percent of its gross domestic product. It’s a good thing that with all that oil they have a big GDP. 

No Latin American country made the top 10, but Brazil is in 11th place at $27 billion. They are big in the seller’s market too.

Poor Spain is facing financial ruin and cutting back on public expenses and jobs, which adds to its 20 percent unemployment figure. But at No. 14, they spent $25.5 billion on the military.

Now let’s look at poor, bankrupt Greece, forced to cut back on public services, reduce public labor and add more people to unemployment rolls. No. 23 on the list, Greece, spent $10.4 billion, or 4.3 percent of GDP, on the military – necessary, they claim, in order to defend them against Turkey. 

Greece is Europe’s biggest arms buyer. Turkey – with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Greece and Georgia as neighbors – can probably excuse spending $15.6 billion on defense. Both Greece and Turkey are in NATO and the European Union.

The United Arab Republic spent a whopping $15.7 billion, or 7.3 percent of GDP on the military. It’s probably necessary to protect their oil fields and luxurious lifestyles.

Even neutral, impenetrable Switzerland – which hasn’t seen a war in centuries – spends $4 billion on its military and makes sure that all men have military training, just in case someone decides to invade.

Which countries are way down at the bottom of the list? It’s no surprise to find Iceland with $10 million or Malta with $51 million. But much maligned Nicaragua is in 139th place, with $44 million in military spending. The bottom line belongs to Gambia, with $4.6 million, or 0.6 percent of GDP.

Army-less Costa Rica didn’t even make the list.

We won’t deny that some form of defense is necessary, but with so many crises attacking the world – climate change, population growth, hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, lack of housing and infrastructure, AIDS, malaria and other preventable diseases – it seems that a few of those billions could be put to better use on human needs.

Olive Branch is a collective name for members of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, an organization founded in 1915 to keep the flame of peace burning. Contact us at peacewomen@gmail.com.