RAEL’S COMMENT:
So much money wasted for nothing which could have been used for peaceful science, medicine, etc… We are not living in democracies but in plutocracies where the financial interest of big corporations is more important than the future and well-being of Humanity. Only a world revolution with the appropriation of all the wealth of these big corporations and the 0.001% owning it can change it. A world revolution “yellow vest-style” is more than ever necessary.
The world has spent $1.8 trillion on its military in 2018. The US is leading the charge, while some of its NATO allies are also buffing their war budgets citing the Russian threat despite Moscow decreasing its military spending.
The past year has been immensely successful for the war industry, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). According to its newest report, released on Monday, global military spending went up 2.6 percent to reach its highest level since at least 1988, when researchers began tracking the data.
US military expenditure stood at $649 billion last year, which amounts to 36 percent of the world’s total. Washington outspent its closest rival, China, by almost 200 percent. It also spent almost as much as the next eight countries combined.
The surge in military spending has been fueled by the exacerbating rivalry between the US and China, as well as the strained situation in Asia where India increased its spending by 3.1 percent and Pakistan by 11 percent.
“The tensions between countries in Asia as well as between China and the USA are major drivers for the continuing growth of military spending in the region,” said Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure (AMEX) program.
