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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (163796)	6/7/2005 5:10:03 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

The fact is that it is now more than two years after the start of the war and we are continuing to take casualties at a rate too high for us to maintain. Instead, especially now that the economy is improving, the military has more and more difficulty convincing people to join up. If I were DoD, I'd worry more about keeping the live ones in the army than either of those two facts.

To: Bilow who wrote (163796)	6/8/2005 1:19:01 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

Military spending shows US the biggest warhawk of any, and there is no second. Fifth biggest is China, a mere 7% of US spending. World military spending nears Cold War peak By Peter Starck1 hour, 51 minutes ago Massive U.S. spending on the war on terrorism pushed global military expenditure above $1 trillion in 2004, the sixth successive year the total has risen, a leading research institute said on Tuesday. World military expenditure rose 5 percent to $1.04 trillion, still 6 percent below a Cold War peak in 1987-88, but up sharply since 1998, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its latest yearbook. "World military spending...is again approaching its level at the height of the Cold War," the think tank said. " "The major determinant of the world trend in military expenditure is the change in the United States." U.S. military spending accounted for nearly half the global figure, rising 12 percent last year to $455 billion, the Swedish government-funded institute said. That was more than the combined total of the 32 next most powerful nations, SIPRI said. The figure was set to rise still further to $502 billion in 2010. U.S. spending "has increased rapidly during the period 2002-2004 as a result of massive budgetary allocations for the 'global war on terrorism', primarily for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq," SIPRI said. By February 2005 the total amount of extra spending requested for the 'global war on terrorism' since Sept. 11 2001 had reached $346 billion, the institute said. "While U.S. military spending is still lower than during the Cold War in terms of its share of GDP, the sustainability of the current levels is being increasingly questioned," SIPRI said. U.S. military spending increased to 3.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year from 3.0 percent in 1999, but remained well below its Cold War peak of more than 6 percent. The top five countries by military spending -- the United States, Britain, France, Japan and China -- spent nearly two-thirds of the world total last year, according to the institute whose database contains officially reported military spending for 159 countries. Growth in China's military spending slowed to 7 percent -- $35 billion -- while Russia's 2004 national defense budget increased almost 5 percent to $19 billion, SIPRI said. Based on data for the past five years, Russia has overtaken the United States as the world's leading supplier of conventional weapons. Russia, the United States, Britain, France and Germany accounted for 81 percent of all conventional weapons delivered in 2000-2004. China and India were the two main recipients of conventional arms in 2004, the institute said. (Additional reporting by Niklas Pollard) news.yahoo.com

To: Bilow who wrote (163796)	6/8/2005 1:52:20 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Oil Forecasting Legend Paints Dire Energy Picture By David J. DesLauriers 06 Jun 2005 at 07:00 AM EDT TORONTO (ResourceInvestor.com) -- While Matt Simmons’ work is recently more widely publicized, Henry Groppe has been accurately forecasting oil price trends for the last 55 years. His latest views agree with those of Mr. Simmons, and paint a dire picture of a “permanently changed situation”. Indeed, Groppe says, “We think were headed for an energy crisis.” ..... resourceinvestor.com