According to a recently released study by the much-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011. Of that, the United States accounted for $711 billion, 41 percent.

The SIPRI found that the US spent about five times as much as China and ten times as much as Russia, the second and third military powers. Seen in this light, it is not surprising that China which accounts for only 8.2 percent of the world's total military spending, believes that increasing its defense capability is reasonable and desirable.

This is even more obvious when the military spending of America's NATO allies, Japan, Australia and the Philippines is added to that of the US, in which case the vast majority of the global military spending is by the US and its allies.

It would be far more truthful for US politicians to tell their constituents that the greatest threat to the US economy and security and their declining living standards doesn't come from China, Iran or any other supposed external threat, but their own military spending.

As the SIPRI study points out, an estimated 58 percent of the US government's tax dollars in 2011 went to funding current wars and preparations for more wars in the future.

Ross Grainger, via e-mail

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(China Daily 05/07/2012 page9)