Somebody's happy because of the climate of war our world is in right now. Military spending hits $1T

[ck4829]

Global military spending rose 3.5 percent last year to $1.2 trillion as U.S. costs for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan mounted, a European research body said on Monday in an annual study.

The United States spent $529 billion, slightly less than the entire GDP of the Netherlands, on military operations in 2006, up 5 percent over the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its latest year book.

"Taking both immediate and long-term factors into account, the overall past and future costs until year 2016 to the USA for the war in Iraq have been estimated at $2,267 billion," it said.

Military spending in China, which is modernizing its People's Liberation Army, climbed to an estimated $49.5 billion last year from $44.3 billion in 2005.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070611/ts_nm/arms_sipri_dc

[Rydz777]

1. There is a lot to chew on in this article. For example,

(1) past and future costs of Iraq war until year 2016 will be $ 2,267 billion. Assuming the analysts do not expect us to be driving up and down the streets of Baghdad in Hummers as long as 2016, this must be an extrapolation of the costs of veterans' care and replacing worn out and destroyed equipment. On the other hand, if we are still in Baghdad in 2016 we will be both insane and broke.

(2) the U.S. spent $ 529 billion on military operations in 2006. How much of this was "off budget," on credit, paid for by Chinese purchases of our bonds?