The USA is well known for its military spending and excessive militarism, they've been engaged in endless wars for many years and they've got many hundreds of bases located all around the world. It's estimated that the US spends at least $1 trillion per year on its foreign policy endeavors and yet there is arguably very little to show for it, besides the meaningless and endless parade of trying to police the world.
It's estimated that they spend about 3 times as much as China, and are considered to be at the top when it comes to which country in the world contributes the most to military spending.
The wars never seem to end and it's argued that there isn't any seemingly clear or laid-out plan for exactly how the military is going to get itself out of these countries and out of these wars, if it ever intends to.
Some say that it doesn't intend to and that the goal is to continue growing and perpetuating the endless cycle, for the most likely culprit: profit. Currently, the US is engaged in numerous conflicts overseas and it seems that the public isn't aware of most of the violence that's ongoing; because of personal distractions and lack of media coverage etc.
Thanks to its thirst for violence, the US has driven its nation into trillions of dollars of debt.
Has it been worth it? People today are spied on and have lost their liberties in many ways because of this war on terror, and today doesn't it seem that terror is more prevalent than ever before? It's like we cannot turn on a television these days without hearing about some attack. So what has the trillions of dollars spent over the last decade really accomplished? Besides getting a few people very rich.
In Recent News:
Chinese billionaire and founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, recently called out the US on its controversial warmongering and he criticized the US for spending too much on wars and not enough on improving infrastructures for its people or funding other services for its citizens. His comments about the fruitless military spending quickly went viral. And he isn't the only one who has criticized the excessive violence, there are others who are even ex-military and ex-intelligence professionals themselves who have admitted that the currently way of doing this is doomed to nothing but continued failure.
Former drone pilots themselves have gone on record, having admitted that drone strikes overseas mostly target innocent civilians and that they fuel even more terror to occur. And there have been others who have also arrived at the same conclusion, that when you launch a strike that has over a 90 percent fail rate, it's going to do more harm than good.
The “democracy” that the US intended to deliver to the Middle East has taken quite a different shape, in that their actions have arguably set the stage for fueling power vacuums in that region and paving the way for a terrorist-infested failed state in numerous areas and chaos to consequently (but no doubt not unexpectedly) ensue.
Are the American people at home really safer today because of the actions of the US military over the last decade or more? It doesn't look like it. Aside from the debt and resources spent, think of the families that now have lost a dad, brother, son, mother, or sister etc, because they were sacrificed for a fruitless endeavor. On both sides. Or even worse, the families of those who have veterans who come back home and are tortured by what they saw or did over there and they take it out on those around them who love them.
Perhaps those resources could have been spent on something more productive for humanity than bloodshed and violence. And perhaps many individuals and families, the world overall, would be better off if it weren't for these unjustified and cruel wars that it seems will never reach their end.
Pics:
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Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/alibaba-jack-ma-davos-america-history-globalization-2017-1
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/jack-ma-us-spent-money/2017/01/18/id/769251/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jul/15/ron-paul/ron-paul-says-us-spends-1-trillion-foreign-policy/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/13/barack-obama/obama-us-spends-more-military-next-8-nations-combi/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/04/25/247-wall-st-countries-war-spending/26308207/
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/20/a-new-documentary-explores-the-devastating-effects-of-drone-warfare-on-victims-and-whistleblowers/
https://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/20/exclusive_air_force_whistleblowers_risk_prosecution