Retired General H. R. McMaster used Fareed Zakaria GPS to promote increased defense spending using a BIG LIE. Here is the truth.
General McMaster used Fareed Zakaria GPS
Fareed Zakaria was discussing the strained relationship between the United States and China. He pointed out the unfortunate nature of General Milley having to use back channels to assure the Chinese that the U.S. did not have any ill-intent..
General McMaster blew of the diplomacy.
“Well there are communications with the Chinese,” McMaster said. “You just saw President Biden speak with Xi Jinping. You saw the U.S National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan meet with Yongjin. Sure, the problem is a lot of times, that communication, that really doesn’t amount to much.”
McMaster then goes on to say that the Chinese see us as weak. He did that to bolster a case for even more defense spending.
“They’re also looking at our defense budget,” McMaster said without any sense of embarrassment for such an asinine statement. “Our defense budget I don’t think is doing enough to make up for really what has been a low wave of deferred modernization to answer some of the asymmetric capabilities that the Chinese Communist Party People’s Liberation Army have developed. I mean, they have increased their defense spending 400 percent since 1995 and so I think it’s really important for the United States… “
Here is a reality check.
The United States is the world’s biggest military spender, and China is a distant second on the list. In fact, the U.S. spends almost as much on its military as the eight other nations on the top 10 list of military spenders combined.
In 2019, the U.S. remained the world’s top military spender by far, at about $649 billion. China was second at about $261 billion.
- The U.S. is the world’s top military spender, followed by China as a distant second. India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia round out the top five.
- China has been aggressively stepping up its military spending in recent years.
- After several years of cutbacks, the U.S. has begun increasing its military budget.
Top 5 Big Spenders
Global military expenditures rose 3% to $1.9 trillion in 2019, according to the latest figures available from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which tracks the numbers on military spending from year to year.1
The top five military spenders were the U.S., China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, SIPRI reported.
The U.S. spent $649 billion on its military to 2019, according to SIPRI. That’s significantly more than China, second on the list of top military spenders at $261 billion. India, third on the list, spent a relatively modest $71 billion.
The General should be ashamed of himself.