The biggest military spenders 2014
 

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) military expenditure report reveals which countries budgeted the most for military spending in 2014.

No surprises - but surprises on disparity.

Thank you to the USA tax payer - your massive contribution helps many in the free world sleep more easily at night:salute:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps49pvgnar.jpg

http://businesstech.co.za/news/gener...ry-spenders-2/

TEAM AMERICA!:yeah:

The general populous did not consent to the outlay of funds I can assure you.:hmmm:

Armageddon outta here.

Sad to say, we are the biggest spenders, but we seem to get the least for our bucks. Imagine if we actually got value for price as many of the lesser countries do; there may be a good lesson for us in taking heed of the economies exercised by countries such as Israel, without "limitless" wealth who make every dollar count...


<O>

You get what you pay for :hmmm::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtuN8UuAWTg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V88sUJKgOsk

Oh please... you were being sarky, right? :doh:

What can you expect from a country whose National Anthem is about rockets and bombs and the glory of battle? :up:

Nothing will change until some corporation can find a way to make an equal profit out of peace.

If you want to make money selling something to the government, package it as a way to kill people and bring a wheelbarrow. :smug:

...or tell them that it will be able to kill people someday. LMAO :woot:

War is big business. Who among us dose not have some type of weapon for at bare minimum self defense? Firearm,knife,club.

Nations the more influence they have or wish to have the more weapons they will require to counter the next guy.

Nippelspanner when you live in a country with the mineral wealth that SA has from platinum, gold, diamonds etc and ad to that mix the strategic geographical position it has regarding the sea routes around the Cape on the tip of Africa - around which ALL oil needs to go if anything happens to the Suez, as it has on many occasions, then in all fairness, it is not the SA Defence force that is going to hold the great bear at bay to make sure the free world gets its vital supplies. Our military has a proud record as any reading of both World Wars will show - 20 odd years ago no African military would have stopped us marching on Cairo.

But when you become a pawn on a chess board as what happened in the cold war between the two super powers at the time viz-a-viz the bush war of Angola and Cuban surrogate troops of one of the super powers of the time - then yes - you get down on your hands and knees and thank the powers that be that a counter super power funded by its citizens is willing to protect you by making available whatever it takes. Whether it is in their interest or not is not the point of argument here.

Let us fast forward that to today. Geographically SA's importance is still the same. Its wealth and that need by the West has not changed. So let us imagine SA awakes tomorrow and finds lying outside Cape Town an armada of Chinese, Russian - you pick your poison - war ships.

Who do you think would firstly prevent that from happening simply by its military strength in the world paid for by the US tax payer - but should any force try that, again, the military might of that country paid for again by the US tax payer would sober up any despots ambitions that might attempt it. Certainly not the SA Defence force.

No matter how weak the SA defence force might become in relation to other powers that would wish it harm, it knows it can rely on its allies to protect it. And the bottom line is, it is the tax payers of those countries who while ensuring the safety of their own countries are also, through their taxes, ensuring the safety of the free world.

That is reality.

Shades of the Jameson Raid! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid :/\\!!

Precisely. When you who has the honey pot and the bees start swarming around you, you tend to view things a tad differently to the guy next to you holding nothing of interest or importance.

Lesotho, a small little Kingdom surrounded by SA is of no importance to anyone. Who wants a country with nothing but mountains and donkeys:D

With the utmost respect to the Swiss of which I am a descendant of - you have mountains but no donkeys

I think that is a rather one-sided point of view.
First of all, the good old "communist invasion" thing gets kinda old and China is not a factor yet, this is all hypothetical - not reality.
I'd also go so far and say that the term "free-world" is more or less a tool, a justification to have military bases all over the world or, you know, commit illegal strike missions in foreign countries "because we can".

While I agree on the 'buffer effect' super powers have towards each other and while that sure can be a stabilizer - I think it is unwise to ignore all other aspects of these 610 billion dollars and their effects/outcome.

Of course, what you originally said isn't wrong, it is just not the whole story.