Wednesday, December 28, 2011
A Great Lack of Balance
With such a great lack of balance between what nations spend on war verses peace is a crime against civilization. The United States government alone spending over 700 billion dollars a year on the military which accounts for over 40% of the global military spending. According to the CIA World Fact Book the seven countries that have the highest percent of there Gross Domestic Product going toward military spending are Middle Eastern countries. With Saudi Arabia spending 10% of their GDP on military spending and the State of Israel spending 7.3% of their GDP on military spending. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations democracies (nations friendly towards the United States) accounts for about 90% of the global military spending.
The United Nation’s annual budget is less than five billion dollars annually or it is about the size of Mexico’s military spending or the University of California’s annual budget. With such a large disproportional amount of the global resources going towards military spending instead of peace building humanitarian ways. No wonder we have the conflicts and wars going on today around the world. Especially with many of the oil rich Middle Eastern countries and the State of Israel having the highest percent of their GNP going towards military spending. The United States contributes about 25% of the United Nations current budget. Which works out too less than one percent of the United States annual military budget.
Without a major reevaluation of global and national priorities and spending we will not see global changes for the better. With the United States and her allies spending over a trillion and a half dollars annually on military expenses, comparatively so little on constructive humanitarian aid for the less fortunate. The global economic down-turn leading to the Arab Spring and the protests in the State of Israel over the high cost of living. As the western oil-dry industrial nations struggle to keep their economies a float with massive deficit spending. The United States about 5% of the world’s population is consuming 25% of the world’s oil. The United States imports more oil than Germany, China and India combined while these countries make-up over a third of the global population. With the United States consuming so much of the world’s oil on borrowed money from the rest of the world. These are some of the great imbalances that are creating many of the problems we face on an on going bases.
The United Nation’s annual budget is less than five billion dollars annually or it is about the size of Mexico’s military spending or the University of California’s annual budget. With such a large disproportional amount of the global resources going towards military spending instead of peace building humanitarian ways. No wonder we have the conflicts and wars going on today around the world. Especially with many of the oil rich Middle Eastern countries and the State of Israel having the highest percent of their GNP going towards military spending. The United States contributes about 25% of the United Nations current budget. Which works out too less than one percent of the United States annual military budget.
Without a major reevaluation of global and national priorities and spending we will not see global changes for the better. With the United States and her allies spending over a trillion and a half dollars annually on military expenses, comparatively so little on constructive humanitarian aid for the less fortunate. The global economic down-turn leading to the Arab Spring and the protests in the State of Israel over the high cost of living. As the western oil-dry industrial nations struggle to keep their economies a float with massive deficit spending. The United States about 5% of the world’s population is consuming 25% of the world’s oil. The United States imports more oil than Germany, China and India combined while these countries make-up over a third of the global population. With the United States consuming so much of the world’s oil on borrowed money from the rest of the world. These are some of the great imbalances that are creating many of the problems we face on an on going bases.
Labels: balance, Middle East, oil, trade deficit, United States foreign policy
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Where to Begin, Where Will it End
Egypt second only to the State of Israel being the largest recipient of United States military aid in the form of grants. With Saudi Arabia being the largest paying foreign customer of the United States Military Industrial Complex with the latest deal totaling sixty-five billion dollars. This in a region where the vast majority of the population lives in poverty with a very few people living like kings. For the most part a closed and tightly controlled monolithic religious region with a lot of the world’s oil reserves.
If there was no oil in the Middle East region. There would probably be no Suez Canal and major oil pipe lines in Egypt connecting the East to the the Western industrial nations with little to no oil. With the vast majority of the Middle Eastern people’s ancestral family’s roots going back over four thousand years in the region. Just under a hundred years ago the vast majority of the Middle Eastern people were living as they did in the fourteenth century. With the discovery of the earliest and largest oil reserves in the world this brought great changes very quickly to the Middle East region.
The oil for military weapon and support programs that have been going on for many decades between the the Middle Eastern nations and Western industrial oil poor nations is not sustainable. Traditional closed societies with autocratic rulers will not be able to survive in an open and free world. The internet with a higher educated population has changed the way people get information including the news. There is a certain irony that in Egypt one of the world’s oldest in tack societies is the first to have a revolution sparked on the internet.
Today we are living in a time when things are changing very fast in the world around us. That many of the ways of the past that are seen and are perceived as being bad, do not change as quickly as many of other things in the world. Creating even larger problems in the future. Unless we get to the modern day root of many of our problems we will continue to sow the seeds of war and despair around the world. With a lot less United States foreign military aid and a little more international humanitarian aid we would have a much better and different world tomorrow.
If there was no oil in the Middle East region. There would probably be no Suez Canal and major oil pipe lines in Egypt connecting the East to the the Western industrial nations with little to no oil. With the vast majority of the Middle Eastern people’s ancestral family’s roots going back over four thousand years in the region. Just under a hundred years ago the vast majority of the Middle Eastern people were living as they did in the fourteenth century. With the discovery of the earliest and largest oil reserves in the world this brought great changes very quickly to the Middle East region.
The oil for military weapon and support programs that have been going on for many decades between the the Middle Eastern nations and Western industrial oil poor nations is not sustainable. Traditional closed societies with autocratic rulers will not be able to survive in an open and free world. The internet with a higher educated population has changed the way people get information including the news. There is a certain irony that in Egypt one of the world’s oldest in tack societies is the first to have a revolution sparked on the internet.
Today we are living in a time when things are changing very fast in the world around us. That many of the ways of the past that are seen and are perceived as being bad, do not change as quickly as many of other things in the world. Creating even larger problems in the future. Unless we get to the modern day root of many of our problems we will continue to sow the seeds of war and despair around the world. With a lot less United States foreign military aid and a little more international humanitarian aid we would have a much better and different world tomorrow.
Labels: Egypt, Middle East, military, oil, social justice, United States foreign policy
