U.S. Military Spending Equals Rest Of The World Combined - Canadian Petition for Dept of Peace

U.S. Military Spending Almost Equals Rest Of The World Combined

The United States spends almost as much on the military as every other country in the world combined, according to Nicholas D. Kristof, writing in the The New York Times.

• The United States spends nearly as much on military power as every other country in the world combined, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. It says that we spend more than six times as much as the country with the next highest budget, China.

• The United States maintains troops at more than 560 bases and other sites abroad, many of them a legacy of a world war that ended 65 years ago. Do we fear that if we pull our bases from Germany, Russia might invade?

• The intelligence community is so vast that more people have 'top secret' clearance than live in Washington, D.C.

• The U.S. will spend more on the war in Afghanistan this year, adjusting for inflation, than we spent on the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War combined.

There's another issue here too: having a strong military is important, but so is diplomacy. And as Kristof also points out, the U.S. military now has more people in its marching bands than the State Department has in its foreign service.

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So - what about a department of peace? There is a long-standing initiative in many countries to established Ministries, Secretariats and Departments of Peace, rather than War and Military aggression. Here is a link to the United States Department of Peace Initiative.

Here is a Canadian Campaign (thanks to Terri):
"In this season of "Peace and Goodwill" the Canadian Department of Peace Initiatives is launching an on-line DoP petition".

This is to promote awareness of CDPI campaign asking the federal government to establish a Canadian Dept of Peace. Click on the link below to show your support:and/or sign the petition.

The campaign runs until January 31st. We are making a push for this campaign during the Holiday Season, and then a reminder in the early New Year.

We look forward to your signing the petition and disseminating it widely to friends and colleagues who are on your email lists and social media networks (facebook and twitter).
The petition is also posted on CDPI facebook page