Can the U.S. Lower Debt by Reducing Military Spending?

On Aug. 25, the United States issued its 2011 report on “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” repeating yet again its annual theory of the “Chinese military threat.” Some commentaries have already pointed out, pertinently, that this was just “a perfect excuse for the Pentagon to defend its budget.” This made me think: Since the U.S. is the biggest debtor country in the world, yet spends the most on military expenses, can it lower its debt by reducing its military spending?

As the richest, biggest and most developed economy in the world, the U.S. is, at the same time, the biggest debtor in the world. It has so much debt that it has reached the point of a debt crisis, something no one believed really could happen. However, people have no choice but to face the reality that since Obama took office, the debt ceiling has been raised three times — to a total of $2.98 trillion. Currently, the U.S. debt already constitutes more than 90 percent of GDP. Nevertheless, for an ostentatious country such as the U.S., it would not be difficult to avoid a debt crisis if only it would make a determined effort to increase taxes and reduce spending.

The news, however, has been much more negative: Based on the 2011 fiscal year budget that the Obama administration proposed to Congress, the U.S. government deficit for the fiscal year would reach a historic new high of $1.65 trillion. And based on the estimate of the Congressional Budget Office, U.S. debt will constitute 190 percent of GDP by the year 2035.

Compared to the total U.S. debt and fiscal deficit, U.S. military spending has always been at the high end, and it does not seem to be coming down. U.S. military spending in 2009 was $612 billion; in 2010, it was $698 billion; and the 2011 military budget that was just passed amounts to $725 billion. The amount for the current fiscal year only includes the budget for regular defense spending, war spending and budget planning. It does not include any expenses for research, development and maintenance of nuclear weapons; so there is a high possibility that these extra expenses will need to be added. For example, in 2007, the U.S. annual military budget was $448 billion, but actual expenditure reached $546.8 billion.

After reviewing the amount of the U.S. debt, the fiscal deficit and military spending, my instinctive reaction was: How great of a war threat is the U.S. facing? The fact is, ever since the Cold War ended, it has been impossible for the U.S. to find an opponent of equal military strength. U.S. military spending is nearly 50 percent of total military spending worldwide and has surpassed the combined spending of the nine other countries of the world’s top 10 military powers. We should know that when Great Britain was the number one world power, in its most prosperous period, it only pursued a goal of maintaining a Two-Power Standard for its navy, which meant that the total gross tonnage of the British navy would equal the combined tonnage of the next two strongest naval powers.

In a situation where a matched opponent is hard to find, the nation is debt-ridden and the fiscal deficit is high, what could such high military spending bring to the U.S. and the world? Let’s look at this set of numbers: Based on Iraq War statistics published by the Associated Press, as of Sept.1, 2009, U.S. military casualties already surpassed 70,000; as of June 30, 2009, U.S. government civilian employee casualties numbered 1,395; as of June 16, 2009, the number of Iraqi scholars assassinated reached 423; and as of Sept.1, 2009, the number of news reporters killed while reporting was 139.

Because many casualties have not been reported, the total number of civilian Iraqi causalities cannot be confirmed even now. A joint report by the World Health Organization and the Iraqi government estimated the Iraqi civilian death toll to be between 104,000 and 223,000. In the Afghanistan War, another war led by the U.S., U.S. army causalities has already surpassed thousands. As to the number of Afghan civilians who have died during the conflict, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reports that 3,606 civilians have already been injured or killed between January and June 2011. In accordance with the estimate issued by the U.S. Congressional Research Service, the total cost of these two wars will reach $15.6 billion to $18.8 billion, more or less equal the total U.S. deficit in the 2011 budget.

It seems that Americans really need to consider: Could a reduction in military spending possibly reduce debt?