by Oui
Mon Apr 1st, 2024 at 11:36:31 AM EST
For many months and even years, the news media have failed to inform the viewers honestly and without an agenda.
Crucial ally to defeat the Islamic State was assassinated by Trump and his goons.
Conflicting ideas from France and Germany on Europe's security and growth
Next item was the arms race between NATO and Russia. The FALSE. comparison made was to present "percentages" of the increase in arms production and not the absolute numbers. So Russia which was nearly disarmed during the Yeltsin years with a rusted fleet, intended to build its economy had a long way to catch-up with the West. No, Dutch army generals have repeatedly been invited to express their desire to invest more in munitions and in modern weapons ... AmericaFirst! origin ... absurd warmongering and propaganda.
In a graph shown to the viewers ...
Russia in % GDP
2021 2.7
2022 3.3
2023 4.0
Europe 1.4% and the U.S. 3.3%
FACTS from SIPRI
Not explaining the absolute numbers (billion $$):
United States 877
Russia 86.4
United Kingdom 68.5
Germany 55.8
France 53.6
Ukraine 44
Italy 36.5
Canada 26.9
Conclusion: aggressor NATO states have a military budget in excess of $ 1.1 trillion ... Russia was and is NOT prepared for a large war.
[Source: The top 15 military spenders, 2022 | SIPRI | ]
Military expenditure by the top 15 countries reached $1842 billion in 2022 and accounted for 82% of global military spending.
In a pie diagram for some clarity
World military expenditure reaches new record high as European spending surges | 24 April 2023 |
Total global military expenditure increased by 3.7 per cent in real terms in 2022, to reach a new high of $2240 billion. Military expenditure in Europe saw its steepest year-on-year increase in at least 30 years. The three largest spenders in 2022--the United States, China and Russia--accounted for 56 per cent of the world total, according to new data on global military spending published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Invasion of Ukraine and tensions in East Asia drive increased spending
World military spending grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high of $2240 billion. By far the sharpest rise in spending (+13 per cent) was seen in Europe and was largely accounted for by Russian and Ukrainian spending. However, military aid to Ukraine and concerns about a heightened threat from Russia strongly influenced many other states' spending decisions, as did tensions in East Asia.
'The continuous rise in global military expenditure in recent years is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world,' said Dr Nan Tian, Senior Researcher with SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. 'States are bolstering military strength in response to a deteriorating security environment, which they do not foresee improving in the near future.'
Cold war levels of military expenditure return to Central and Western Europe
Military expenditure by states in Central and Western Europe totalled $345 billion in 2022. In real terms, spending by these states for the first time surpassed that in 1989, as the cold war was ending, and was 30 per cent higher than in 2013. Several states significantly increased their military spending following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while others announced plans to raise spending levels over periods of up to a decade.
'The invasion of Ukraine had an immediate impact on military spending decisions in Central and Western Europe. This included multi-year plans to boost spending from several governments,' said Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, Senior Researcher with SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. 'As a result, we can reasonably expect military expenditure in Central and Western Europe to keep rising in the years ahead.'
Some of the sharpest increases were seen in Finland (+36 per cent), Lithuania (+27 per cent), Sweden (+12 per cent) and Poland (+11 per cent).
'While the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 certainly affected military spending decisions in 2022, concerns about Russian aggression have been building for much longer,' said Lorenzo Scarazzato, Researcher with SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. 'Many former Eastern bloc states have more than doubled their military spending since 2014, the year when Russia annexed Crimea.'
Russia and Ukraine raise military spending as war rages on
Russian military spending grew by an estimated 9.2 per cent in 2022, to around $86.4 billion. This was equivalent to 4.1 per cent of Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, up from 3.7 per cent of GDP in 2021.
Figures released by Russia in late 2022 show that spending on national defence, the largest component of Russian military expenditure, was already 34 per cent higher, in nominal terms, than in budgetary plans drawn up in 2021.
'The difference between Russia's budgetary plans and its actual military spending in 2022 suggests the invasion of Ukraine has cost Russia far more than it anticipated,' said Dr Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, Director of SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
Ukraine's military spending reached $44.0 billion in 2022. At 640 per cent, this was the highest single-year increase in a country's military expenditure ever recorded in SIPRI data. As a result of the increase and the war-related damage to Ukraine's economy, the military burden (military spending as a share of GDP) shot up to 34 per cent of GDP in 2022, from 3.2 per cent in 2021.
US spending rises despite high inflation
The United States remains by far the world's biggest military spender. US military spending reached $877 billion in 2022, which was 39 per cent of total global military spending and three times more than the amount spent by China, the world's second largest spender. The 0.7 per cent real-terms increase in US spending in 2022 would have been even greater had it not been for the highest levels of inflation since 1981.
Dutch media are complicit spreading falsehoods and a NATO war narrative ... populism conforms to fascist behavior.
