Weapons spending tops $1 trillion: BBC

[emad]

Spending on weapons around the world topped $1 trillion (£560bn) for the first time in 2004, a new report says.

A study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) found that countries around the world spent $162 on weapons for each person alive.

The US alone accounted for 47% of the global total, mainly because of soaring spending on its "global war on terror".

Arms companies were benefiting from the demand, with sales at the top 100 firms up 25% in 2003 on the year before.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4617721.stm

[Double T]

1. I guess we will never learn anything from our previous mistakes

[whistle]

2. That could easily double with Bush's Star Wars weapons program

[Double T]

4. Alien terrorists will be bush's new frontier!!

[reprobate]

8. "Star Wars" is the smallest part of the space based systems planned.

Google United States Space Command for some interesting insights. They plan to be able to attack any point on earth from space, with orbitting lasers, and space planes that will de-orbit, attack, and return to orbit and rendezvous with their orbitting base.


This ain't sci=fi, it's neocons.

[cthrumatrix]

3. democracy by killing each other

[donkeyotay]

5. This is the real globalization story

The wRingers used to like to fret over the UN. Ha. The defense industry has financial resources, the power of secrecy in congress, and control of television news. They have a profit motive above nationalistic loyalty, and how these international warmongering corporations will ever be reined in is beyond me.

[One_Life_To_Give]

6. We are letting ourselves be outspent?

This is outrageous! Our potential adversaries are spending almost 13% more on weapons than we are. This has got to be Clinton's fault. :sarcasm:

[truthpusher]

7. Global Military Spending Tops $1T in 2004 (47% from the US)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060700585_pf.html

Global Military Spending Tops $1T in 2004
----------------------------------
By MATTIAS KAREN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; 11:11 AM
----------------------------------
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- For the first time since the Cold War, global military spending exceeded $1 trillion in 2004, nearly half of it by the United States, a prominent European think tank said Tuesday.

(snip)

However, the figures may be on the low end, the institute said, as countries are increasingly outsourcing services related to armed conflict, such as military training and providing logistics in combat zones, without classifying them as military expenses.

SIPRI, a Swedish government-funded institute, said such outsourcing has more than doubled in the last 15 years, and was estimated to have reached $100 million during 2004, SIPRI researcher Caroline Holmqvist said.

"This is a global phenomenon," she said, adding that it's hard to give exact figures.

(snip)

The United States accounted for 47 percent of all military expenditures, while Britain and France each made up 5 percent of the total. In all, 15 countries accounted for 82 percent of the world's total military spending.

complete story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060700585_pf.html

[indepat]

9. I feel so much safer and take comfort those monies won't be wasted on

the poor, the needy, health care or shoring up a rotting infrastructure.

[Supersedeas]

10. at least the war in Iraq was an economic boon for someone!!!

Go Defense Contractors Go

[Roland99]

11. What would we do if egomaniacal men no longer were in power?

Imagine a world where weapons were not needed? At least not to a hundredth of the scale as they are wanted now.

[NeoConsSuck]

12. Report: World military spending tops $1T in 2004

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Global military spending in 2004 broke the $1 trillion barrier for the first time since the Cold War, boosted by the U.S. war against terror and the growing defense budgets of India and China, a European think tank said Tuesday.

Led by the United States, which accounted for almost half of all military expenditure, the world spent $1.035 trillion on defense, equal to 2.6% of global gross domestic product, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-06-07-world-military_x.htm

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What a waste! As if the money couldn't have been put to better mankind.

[Deja Q]

13. But why would India and China, our great economic saviors, do that?

[Toby109]

14. I got an idea.

Let's stop arming the fucking world. Not only do we spend more on domestic spending our arms manufacturers(read US government)supply 63% of the rest of the world's arms. Oh, but we aren't to blame. Yeah, right.

[NeoConsSuck]

15. We were wiser in the 1950's..

we've regressed since then:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953

[snot]

16. If you appreciate the BBC as we've known it, PLS go to this link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=376080&mesg_id=376080