Eurasia Press & News
According to data recently published by Code Pink, an anti-war organization based in the US, the US and its allies have dropped at least 326,000 bombs and missiles on countries in the greater Middle East/North Africa region since 2001, equivalent to more than 40 every single day.
Analysts pointed out that despite its highest military spending and strongest military strengths in the world, Uncle Sam has not invested its power in preserving world peace, but has instead constantly interfered in or even invaded other countries through the illegal use of force in order to protect its own hegemony and interests. From this point of view, the US has become the biggest threat to world peace and a global scourge.
Hardly a month had passed when the Biden administration launched an air strike in eastern Syria on February 25 that destroyed multiple facilities, which the US military explained was a response to the recent attacks against American and coalition personnel in Iraq and to ongoing threats to those personnel. Syria, Russia and Iran all strongly condemned the US-launched attacks that violated international law and Syrian sovereignty.
Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies, co-founder and researcher of Code Pink, wrote in their article that the air strike in eastern Syria was just the latest case in point of America and its allies’ persistent and ceaseless military operations in the greater Middle East/North Africa region, to which Iraq and Syria have been the most seriously hit victims in the past two decades as 152,000 bombs and missiles have been dropped on them according to incomplete statistics. There is no telling how many innocent lives those bombings have taken.
There are statistics showing that the US has fought wars in 227 out of the 240 years since its founding. “The US will fight wars as long as it exists,” said Professor Sergei Sudakov of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences in an interview with Russia Today TV.
Behind America’s rampaging all over the world is its ever-rising military expenditure.
A report issued by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in April 2020 revealed that the US military spending rose by 5.3% in 2019 and reached USD 732 billion, which was 38% of the world total and almost the total of the ten trailing countries. Its military increase constitutes the majority of the 3.6% increase in global military expenditure that year, the highest growth rate since 2010.
According to analysts, military strength is a critical pillar of America’s global hegemony. After the end of WWII, the country has maintained massive amounts of troops overseas to protect its interests and allies.
In its 2018 National Defense Strategy report, the US Department of Defense said the American military should be able to perform a range of operations in parallel, including effective nuclear deterrence, developing missile defense, tackling major-power competition and hotspot crisis, and maintaining anti-terrorist warfare.
These requirements are more ambitious than America’s plans in a very long time after the end of WWII, and are therefore in need of more funding, according to Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, an American think tank.
The fact is that the huge military spending and constant overseas military operations have only benefited a handful of politicians and arms tycoons in the country, while they have harmed the interests of the majority of American people and seriously threatened world peace and stability.
Some experts and political figures in the US have voiced criticism of the colossal military bills, who believe the government should redirect more resources to handling the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling climate change, and boosting economic and social development.
Stephen M.Walt, professor of International Affairs at Harvard University, recently pointed out that the US has spent a lots of money building powerful armed forces, but it doesn’t have the world’s best basic education, medical system, wireless network, power system, railway, road and bridges, and its public institutions are scarcely funded.
Bernie Sanders, an independent member of the congress, and Democratic Senator Edward Markey proposed in July 2020 to cut the defense budget for FY2021 by 10%, but found no support in the senate. Markey said at the time that the immense military spending has not protected the American people from coronavirus, nor will it protect them from the outcomes of environmental degradation and climate change. America’s priorities should be eliminating poverty, battling the global pandemic, sponsoring education and improving the medical insurance system, rather than waging wars and developing new weapons.
