POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
For those who do not know, China's military expenditures
have run officially at about 10% those of the United States for years.
Even if you allow for some disguise in expenditures, it has
not been more than 15% those of the United States.
In recent years the United States' expenditures have
increased at explosive rates, as the Pentagon quite literally aims to have the
entire planet subject to its drones and spy satellites and new hypersonic
killing machines.
The United States spends as much as the total of all the
other world's countries on the military.
The United States is the world's greatest arms dealer, by a
huge measure.
Only in recent weeks Obama - yes, Obama, that former
sandal-wearing academic - announced new measures to keep America's hold of the
Eastern Pacific - a direct threat to China, courtesy of the Pentagon which now
pretty much controls what an American president may or may not do.
And China sees America doing things like using its high-tech
drones to assassinate people in half a dozen countries.
That is the context around China's new expenditure, and I
believe we should all be grateful that the world has a few states that will not
allow America's usurpation of authority around the globe to go
unchallenged.
