Neither Paul Ryan nor almost any other spending ‘hawks’ — dem or repub — talk about cutting military spending. Which accounts for 20% of the budget and has increased 14 years in a row (a feat we didn’t even see during the Cold War). Mindboggling, when you look at this list of spending per country (which doesn’t even account for off-book Homeland Security or CIA expenditures.) Ryan has complained about the gutting of the military and that America needs to be ‘aggressive’ with Russia (His VP counterpart Biden is also an anti-Russia grandstander). Yet, Russian military spending is 10% of US. Trivia: Iranian military spending is less than 1/2 of U.A.E. spending, which along with Saudi Arabia, buys all of its weaponry from the United States.
– John Petkovic and his band, Cobra Verde, enjoy life to the fullest in Cleveland, Ohio.
List of countries by military expenditures
This [Wikipedia] article is a list of countries by military expenditure, the amount spent on the military by a nation in a given year. Military expenditure figures are presented in US$ at either constant or current exchange rates, the results can vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country’s currency. Such fluctuations may change a country’s ranking from one year to the next. Currently, the world’s five largest military spenders (United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and France) are recognized to be world powers with each being a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
The first list is based on the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook 2012 which includes a list on the world’s top 15 military spenders in 2011 at current market exchange rates. The second list is based on the SIPRI military expenditure database for the year 2011 (in constant 2009 US$).
