The Nobel Laureate Obama is in his own words the Commander in Chief of “the world’s sole military superpower”.
In this interview with Lauren Lyster (Russia Today), Rick Rozoff speaks about this very superpower that rules the world today.
For several decades Rick has been an anti-war advocate working to awaken people to the size, magnitude and intervening power of the U.S. Military empire.
How big is our military? Consider projections for 2010 Defense Budget…
Chris Hellman, a defense analyst and director of research at the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan think tank focused on budget issues, expects a request from the White House of about $745 billion, which would include war costs, $25 billion for Energy Department nuclear and other security spending, and the Pentagon’s base budget of about $555 billion. source WSJ.com
(Below the video are a few excerpts from Rick Rozoff’s articles.)
The Pentagon, then, has more than 3.5 million people at its immediate disposal excluding private military contractors.
- 1,445,000 active duty service members
- 1.2 million National Guard and other reserve components
- 800,000 civilian employees at home and deployed worldwide
United States armed forces personnel and weapons, including nuclear arms, are stationed at as many as 820 installations in scores of nations.
The U.S. officially accounts for over 41% of international military spending according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s report.
On October 28 President Obama signed the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act with a price tag of $680 billion, including $130 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The U.S. also has the world’s second largest standing army, over 1,445,000 men and women under arms according to estimates of earlier this year, second only to China with 2,255,000.
As Alan Mackinnon, the chairman of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, wrote last September:
“The world of war is today dominated by a single superpower. In military terms the United States sits astride the world like a giant Colossus. As a country with only five per cent of the world’s population it accounts for almost 50 per cent of global arms spending.
“Its 11 naval carrier fleets patrol every ocean and its 909 military bases are scattered strategically across every continent. No other country has reciprocal bases on US territory – it would be unthinkable and unconstitutional. It is 20 years since the end of the Cold War and the United States and its allies face no significant military threat today. Why then have we not had the hoped-for peace dividend? Why does the world’s most powerful nation continue to increase its military budget, now over $1.2 trillion a year in real terms? What threat is all this supposed to counter?
“The US response has been largely military – the expansion of NATO and the
encirclement of Russia and China in a ring of hostile bases and alliances. And continuing pressure to isolate and weaken Iran.”Observations to be kept in the forefront of people’s minds as China is increasingly presented as a security challenge – and a strategic threat – to the world’s sole military superpower.
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnatoBlog site:
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/
DISCLAIMER:
I am a recovering NeoCon that voted for Bush 4 times. So, by no means am I a “dove”…
However, the facts are… the wars we wage are Constitutionally Illegal, executed under false pretenses and immoral by the standards of justice and liberty.
If one follows the “real news”, they will recognize patterns and the flow of money. The money that leads to secrecy and power. A cartel if you will.
To get the real “story” you would have to be at the source (on the ground, in the chambers). Since that can’t happen we depend on the “news”.
What is the “real news”? Obviously, not the talking heads on cable be it Fox News, MSNBC, CNN or any other… this stuff is “filtered” for the audience … progressive or neocon.
The best way to get the “real news” is to follow the “news wires” before it is “dressed up” for these intended cable audiences.
Try it. Read the AP wire and go to the .Gov sites (or at least go to Bloomberg.com, C-Span, NYTimes.com VOAnews.com and the likes) FIRST before you flip on the dis-information services. You might be surprised…
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