Imperial Overstretch

The US – a democratic Republic that claims to despise large government – now spends more each year on the military than the NEXT NINE LARGEST national defence budgets. Of course, this gets results — there isn’t a single third-world country today that the US couldn’t pummel. This is a big turn-around for a country that during its rise to power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, prided itself on avoiding the large standing armies that sapped the European Powers. Instead, the US traditionally relied on a “well-armed miltia” to deter invasion. Now it has aircraft carriers. These cost far more.

But is this money being spent wisely? And how much do you need to spend, or should you spend, if people can cause billions of dollars of damage for virtually nothing?