The US military vastly outspends every other military on the planet, and
has capabilities that far outstretch all others, hampered, if at all,
by the fact that the US is constantly embroiled in myriad wars around
the world.
The news that Russia has fallen out of the top five
in military spending, however, makes them an increasingly difficult
“threat” to hype up. After all, the US is outspending them at least
ten-fold.
China is in second place on the list, and even if they’re far behind the US, that seems to be where the Pentagon is focusing.
The idea that China is likely to build its first aircraft carrier this
year is presented as an effort to “contest US military superiority” in
the region.
All Chinese equipment the Pentagon mentioned in their new report, they
only have a small fraction of what the US has. On top of that, the
report hypes Chinese hackers, and accuses ethnic Chinese people in
general of being willing to “advance China’s interests.”
Pentagon Hypes ‘China Threat’ With Eye Towards a Bigger Budget
As Russian spending shrinks, Pentagon needs a new excuse for spending
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
Join the Discussion!
We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.
For more details, please see our Comment Policy.
