Saturday, August 22, 2009
The United States’ military spending, which currently costs almost as much as that of all the other nations of the world combined, is unnecessarily large, according to Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Compared to World War II and the Cold War, the U.S. is now in a time of relative peace and faces no difficult enemies. But, Bandow says, the U.S. is spending more on defense than it did during the Cold War, even though the enemies most feared by Americans–North Korea and Iran–pose no real security threat because of their lack of military and economic capabilities.
To combat terrorism, Bandow suggests that instead of spending money on offensive strategies and interventionist policies, the U.S. should cut back on military spending and fund non-military tactics, such as better intelligence and building alliances. Bandow concludes that the United States is running out of serious enemies and should cut its military budget.
-Jamie Mei Cheng
How Many Enemies, How Much Military Spending? (by Doug Bandow, Huffington Post)
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