Growing cost of maintaining empire.

WILL $1.5 TRILLION DEFENSE BUDGET BE ENOUGH?

BLEEDING TO THE POINT OF EXHAUSTION

 

Osama bin Laden warned the US that if they continued on their path in the middle east they would be bled to the point of collapse.  The architect of the 911 attack is long gone, but his worlds are more relevant today than in 2001, 25 years ago. With another prolonged costly war underway in Iran and another in Ukraine, can the US continue to be the master of the globe?

 

We hear the new demand for $1.5 Trillion defense budget, an increase of $500 billion, as being necessary to defend the country from adversaries hell bent on the US destruction. The US has an estimated 750 to 800 military bases around the world, only an estimate, as no one really knows for sure how many. The UK also bankrupt, has the next largest number at around 100. The great so called threats to the US, Russia and China may have several dozen in lands adjacent to or bordering their countries. 

 

The US present Defense or War budget is now $954 billion and is claimed to be seriously inadequate.  China, a country with over 1 billion citizens, is next at $335 billion, admittedly rising, mostly due to continuous threats of US military and political leaders of inevitable war with China. Russia's military budget is estimated at $190 billion. Israel at $48 billion and Iran at $7.4 billion. No one is counting the pallets of US dollars handed out as bribes and incentives for other players to do military related operations for the greatest spender on the planet in human history, much of it borrowed or just plain printed money.

 

No one doubts that the US can ultimately defeat any adversary, ultimately with the use of nuclear weapons if necessary, at least for now. The question is how long can the US maintain the financial power to keep maintaining this empire, that is fraying badly. In December the selective service registration will become automatic and some suspect that it will be necessary to add many more warm bodies to the ranks to keep up the defense of empire. Reluctant warm bodies have often proved to be sometimes a liability rather than an asset, but I suspect this is were the country is going, like on a rail, with out brakes, until it ultimately self derails.

 

All the while, the adversaries may understand better than the architects of this empire that it is all unsustainable and time is running out, they just need to survive and not directly confront the monster, until it self destructs.