The Consequences of Military Policy

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the military alliance led by the United States, aspires to have 140 of the 194 countries in the world as members or partners. In this way, according to Rick Rozoff from the Voltaire Network, the Atlantic alliance, under pressure from Israel, would have the troops, equipment and airbases to carry out military actions in any part of the world. The objective, besides attacking Iran, would be to contain China and Russia. The process of NATO-ization has been patiently planned. In the first decade of the 21st century the number of members went from 16 to 28. Now there are 40,* and they are working on convincing India, [a] founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, to abandon its policy of neutrality and collaborate in the development of an international missile defense system.

On its own, the United States has the highest military expenditures in the world: around $700 billion in 2011, about 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). And the figure has been growing since 1998, well before 9/11. As Federico Gama asserts, this arms race destines an ever-increasing budget to military related scientific research. Four areas merit particular attention: nuclear arms, military robots, directed energy weapons characterized as “non-lethal,” and the use of cybernetics for espionage or disruption of systems and computerized equipment. With regard to the military robots – especially the drones – the American forces did not possess any when they invaded Iraq, but by 2010 they had 12,000.**

This war-oriented strategy, with the goal of maintaining control of the global energy supply, has created a deficit of $1.3 trillion, and a debt of 120 percent of GDP that continues to grow. Paradoxically, the largest creditor is China, but Brazil and Argentina also have most of their reserves invested in U.S. debt. There is a possibility of default, which would be a crisis for the whole world. For many analysts, it is clear that the militarization of the global economy during the last decade is something that we are all paying for. It results in financial volatility, in neo-liberal plans for restructuring, pension reforms, more labor concessions, elevated rates of real unemployment, not to mention increasing poverty and hunger.

*Editor’s note: NATO currently consists of 28 independent member countries, nine of which were added in the 21st century.

**Editor’s note: These numbers, while accurately translated, could not be verified.