Report: World military spending nears Cold War levels

World

military spending surged during 2003, reaching $956 billion, nearly half of it by the United States as it paid for missions in

Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror [according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute]. …

Military spending

rose by 11 percent, which the group called a remarkable increase. The amount was up 18 percent from 2001.

The $956 billion spent

on defense costs worldwide corresponded to 2.7 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, according to the annual report.

”It’s very close to the Cold War peak in 1987,” said institute researcher Elisabeth Skoens, who co-authored the report. …

The United States led the world in defense spending, accounting for 47 percent of the total[mjh: !], followed by Japan with 5

percent and Britain, France and China with 4 percent each.

So the world (the US) is spending nearly as much today on

defense as we did at the height of the Cold War. Then, our enemy was a superpower with massive weapons of destruction and a huge army.

Now, our enemy uses box cutters and donkey carts. Something’s not quite right.

Could it be that the Military-Industrial Complex has

seized the opportunity to continue to grow fat on fear? Are you safer than you were 4 years ago? mjh