For the first time since the Cold War, global military spending exceeded one trillion dollars last year. The United States spent by far the most -- accounting for almost half (47%) of the world's military expenditures. According to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, world military expenditure in 2004 is estimated to have been $975 billion at constant (2003) prices and exchange rates or $1035 billion in current dollars. As a global average, 2004 world military expenditure corresponds to $162 per capita and 2.6 per cent of world GDP.
U.S. spending has increased rapidly over the last three years as a result of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. These operations, which have been funded by supplemental spending packages, have accounted for $238 billion over the last two years. This amount exceeds the combined military spending of Africa, Latin America, Asia (except Japan but including China) and the Middle East in 2004 ($193 billion in current dollars).
Despite this massive increase in spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that a majority of Americans no longer feel the Iraq war has made the United States a safer place to live. The poll also found that nearly three-quarters of Americans say the number of casualties in Iraq is unacceptable, two-thirds say the U.S. military there is bogged down, and nearly six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting. More than four in 10 people surveyed think the U.S. presence in Iraq is becoming analogous to the experience in Vietnam.
