Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid bill worth $95 billion on April 24, including more military aid to Ukraine and Israel. After signing the bill, Biden said that it would be "shipped" to Ukraine "within a few hours."
This bill is the latest manifestation of the belligerent habits and hegemonic mentality of the United States, and it is also an example of the military-industrial complex manipulating the operation of the country. Not only does the United States continue to add fuel to the turmoil around the world, but its own military spending has been rising year after year. According to the global military spending report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden a few days ago, the United States will reach a new high in military spending in 2023 and will still be the country with the largest military spending in the world. The U.S. policy of reckless militarism has brought turmoil to the world, but it has only fertilized the U.S. military industry.
The black hand that fomented the conflict
In the bill signed by Biden this time, more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine occupies the "lion's head". In addition, the bill includes assistance to Israel for replenishing the missile defense system and procuring additional weapons.
After the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, the United States provided a large amount of military assistance to Ukraine in order to drag down its strategic rival Russia. As Israel's biggest "backer," the United States has also "given the green light" to Israel's military operations in Gaza and provided arms support, causing the "powder keg" in the Middle East to spark everywhere. Affected by the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the geopolitical situation in Europe and the Middle East continues to be tense. The actual manifestation of this tension is the rising military spending of regional countries.
According to a report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on the 22nd, the ongoing Ukraine crisis has led to a 16% year-on-year increase in total military spending across Europe in 2023 to $588 billion. Military spending in the Middle East reached $200 billion, up 9 percent year-on-year, the region's largest annual increase in a decade.
Russian military commentator Andrei Koshkin said that the growth in global military spending is due to the fact that the world today is gradually plunging into a serious geopolitical crisis. Whether it is the Ukraine crisis or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, they are inextricably linked to the United States. The United States creates crises and passes on the risks and pressures of crises to other countries.
Hegemony-driven chariots
According to a report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States will spend $916 billion on its military spending in 2023, "re-elastingly" the top military spending in the world. At the same time, under the leadership of the United States, the total military spending of NATO member countries reached $1.3 trillion last year, accounting for 55% of global military spending.
Since 2014, the focus of U.S. military development has shifted from "counterinsurgency operations and asymmetric warfare" to developing "new weapons systems that can be used in the event of a potential conflict with an adversary with advanced military capabilities," the report analyzes. Analysts believe that this shows that the United States is no longer satisfied with "striking at the enemies that have already appeared" but is trying to "destroy all potential enemies." This is the result of the Cold War mentality and hegemonic mentality.
American political scientists Christopher Lane and Benjamin Schwartz jointly wrote that in order to ensure a favorable international environment, the United States firmly believes that it is necessary to prevent other countries from "challenging our leadership or trying to overthrow the established political and economic order", so it is necessary to establish mechanisms that can deter potential competitors. American historian James Chase and others have pointed out in their book "An Impenetrable America" that "for more than two centuries, the desire for absolute security has been regarded as the core of [American] foreign policy."
Igor Korotchenko, a Russian military expert and editor-in-chief of the magazine "National Defense," pointed out that the United States has a large number of military bases and multiple aircraft carrier formations around the world, trying to expand its military influence in different regions of the world, and the huge military spending generated by this is a manifestation of the aggressive foreign policy of the United States.
Winner of the arms order
U.S. military giants have recently released their financial reports for the first quarter of 2024. Raytheon's first-quarter sales were $19.3 billion, up 12% from the year-ago quarter, and net income of $1.7 billion, up 20% from the year-ago quarter, both beating expectations. The backlog reached a record $202 billion.
Lockheed Martin had first-quarter sales of $17.2 billion, up 14% from a year earlier. Bloomberg reports that the foreign aid bill passed this time could increase orders for F-35 fighter jets, which means additional benefits for Lockheed Martin.
Whether it is the United States' own huge military spending or a steady stream of foreign military aid, the answer is self-evident.
"It's time to break the grip of the U.S. military-industrial complex on politics, policy, and groupthink. Referring to the report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Robert Weisman, chairman of the US Organization for the Defense of the Public Interest, pointed out that for the military-industrial complex, spending a lot of money on Pentagon contractors is not much, but they are reluctant to spend a penny on improving people's livelihoods.
Today, a growing number of Americans are dissatisfied that the military-industrial complex continues to drain the nation's resources, while key areas of people's livelihood are not receiving the attention they deserve. On April 15, in Renton, Washington, people held a rally to protest against U.S. defense policy, holding signs to protest the massive flow of money into the defense industry. Mona Lee, 85, was the organizer of the protest. "I would like to see the money spent on the military used in health care, education, transport infrastructure, etc," she said. ”
The National Interest magazine article argues that the best option for the United States is to spend money on domestic projects. Of the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the military, "just one dollar can improve our cities and benefit millions of people." (Participating reporters: Zhu Ruiqing, Song Ying, Xiong Maoling, Fu Yiming, Huang He)