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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (22873)	10/4/2007 12:49:10 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 71588

China's actually spending is understated on that chart. I wouldn't be surprised if other countries are two, but I don't know for sure if they are. China has all sorts of other funds beyond their official defense budget, extending to things like having the army own profitable businesses. And that's just considering spending in currency terms. If you draft people you can pay them peanuts but its still a real cost (to the draftee, and to the economy of the country as he is removed from civilian work). So does the US really put more resources in to its military than the entire rest of the world combined? No, its doesn't. Of course we do spend a lot more than anyone else. Which says nothing about Peter's point. Whether or not gutted is an appropriate term is somewhat subjective, but as a matter of objective fact the military was greatly shrunk. We went from 18 army divisions to 10, from an almost 600 ship navy to about 200, we also slashed air wings. The marines got the smallest cut (they are the smallest force, but even in percentage terms their cut was smaller), but they where also cut.