U.S. Accounts for Half the World’s Defense Spending
I don’t have an iota of a clue as to who The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is. Until I stumbled upon some charts from their site this evening, I had never heard of them. Based on the headlines on the front page of their site, I think I’ve got a crisp bead on their agenda and political position though.
Even assuming a serious bias here, I have to confess that this report and chart stopped me in my tracks.
This group asserts that:
The United States spends more than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined.
I’m an intelligent guy, but I’m not sure I can begin to grok this sort of disparity. Is this data pure bullshit, being massaged for just the sort of dramatic effect it had on me? Lies, damn lies, statistics – and all that jazz?
That sounds about right. The US increased military spending dramatically after 2000, esp. with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, it was still a pretty high % of all spending before 2001.