Which Is the Most War Mongering Country in the World?

A commentator on CNN’s morning show on Sunday, February 11, 2018, stated that North Korea was the most warmongering country in the world. This was part of a discussion about VP Mike Pence refusing to acknowledge or shake the hand of North Korea’s representative, Kim Yo Jong at the Olympic games.

It is true that Kim Yo Jong is North Korea’s vice minister of the Workers Party’s Propaganda and Agitation Department.  Her role was the major justification used by the commentator that Pence was right not to interact with Kim.  It was a significant insult and act of rudeness for Pence to not interact with Kim Yo Jong.  Actions like this by Pence, and Trump’s similar actions, decrease the respect of the US by the rest of the world.

The US doesn’t have a formal department of Propaganda and Agitation. Trump leaves that to Fox News and Breitbart. The US does have a Department of Defense (DOD), which is a total misrepresentation of what the DOD does. The US is by far the most warmongering country in operation today.  The US is apparently seeking global domination under the guise of the war on terror, and the prevention of further nuclear proliferation.  In the meantime, we are no example of a true democracy by any standard.

A group called VetFriends has this to say about the US military installations.  They support the US military and consider these statistics as major achievements.

“The historical Byzantine, Ottoman, Roman & British Empires relied heavily on foreign military bases during their peaks of power. After World War II the United States created the most extensive network of military bases ever, allowing for the deployment of Air & Naval Forces in moments.

No military in the history of the world has been more widely deployed as the United States.

Currently, the United States has military personnel deployed in about 150 Countries… This covers 75% of The World’s Nations. “

The focus by the US on North Korea is a diversion from the major threats to the US, which include the militarization of the South China Sea by China, interference of Russia in US politics, and the continuing huge purchase of US bonds by China and Japan. They could easily create a financial crisis by cashing their bonds.

According to US Treasury data, China and Japan hold over $2.2 trillion dollars of US treasury bonds as of November 2017. The European Union holds over $1.3 trillion dollars of US treasury bonds. The US has just proudly announced a budget increase of over $80 billion dollars in defense spending for the next fiscal year. When you are a country spending more for war materials than the next eight largest countries combined, it isn’t for defense.

Trump had this to say about the budget bill just passed in a Tweet after signing the bill.

“Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more,” Trump tweeted shortly after signing the bill. “First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”

The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported on the recently passed budget bill that shows the military spending done by the US in the name of defense.

“In 2016, as the world’s biggest military spender, the United States racked up a larger outlay ($611bn) than the next eight countries combined, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.  

The potential $80bn leap in military spending in 2018 would itself surpass the total annual military budget in the world apart from China.  The US “spends more on national defense than China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, France and Japan combined”, the report said, and yet “US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world”.

There should be concentrated voter effort to overcome the tendencies of Congress and the Executive Branch to dump huge sums of taxpayer money into defense under the pretense that we need a bigger military presence to protect US interests. If we were not seeking global dominance, we could finance the rebuilding of American infrastructure, manufacturing, education, and climate change disasters with this defense spending.  The US is a much greater threat to the world peace than North Korea, or the threat of any other countries, including China, Russia, Syria, Pakistan, Israel, and Iran.

Each and every person in the US should be considering whether the US has the right to claim itself as a model of democracy.  Members of Congress and the government branches act in the interests of the major financial contributors and lobbyists, not the needs of the citizens.  The global publicity created by Trump Twitters and network news has awakened US citizens and international governments and citizens that the US is not the standard for democracy or morality that it once held.

We need to force Congress and the Executive Branch to fund programs to make the US stronger economically and socially by stopping the excess spending on global military involvement.  You can contact the White House, Congress, and all levels of state and local governments using this link.  It is only by continued demands on government to serve the people and not the defense industry, special interests, and betrayers of the freedoms defined in the Constitution.  We need to WAKE UP! STAND UP! SPEAK UP! now against priorities that leave our citizens in grave need while wrecking havoc around the world.