One major point of contention is that comparing countries in terms of defense spending is like comparing apples to oranges. The argument is that some countries aren’t reporting accurate numbers, or leaving certain parts out of the budget that the U.S. includes. A lack of transparency is a problem that China and Russia, among others, are criticized for.
And it’s this problem as well as a lack of standardized defense accounting that creates confusion. In the 2010 annual report to Congress from the Defense Department about China’s military spending, it said that “China’s published military budget does not include major categories of expenditure” and that “China’s legislature has not made public any details of the role, if any, that it plays in exercising oversight of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) budget.”
Goure estimated that approximately 25 percent of China’s defense spending is off the budget sheet. However, the counter argument is that the U.S. puts certain expenses, like the nuclear weapons program, under the Department of Energy.
And while the U.S. budget proposal is high, some argue that this high number also acts as a preventative measure.
“We have about 60 allies around the world that we’re sworn to help protect, not because of the legalisms of the treaty, but because it’s much better to prevent the cost of war in the first place,” said Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington, DC, in an interview. “No other countries try to do what we do.”
And although U.S. defense spending is particularly high now, including a projected $159 billion for Iraq, Afghanistan and global counter-terrorism operations next year, O’Hanlon said he looks forward to seeing the U.S. wind down on defense spending as the American troops withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011 and begin to draw down in Afghanistan.
“There’s at least $100 billion of war-related expense coming off the budget soon,” he said.
But Evan Siff is not so sure.
“I think we’re in this for the long haul, he said. “I wish I knew when it was going to end.”
