The Bush administration has orchestrated one of the largest military buildups in the history of the United States. According to the World Policy Institute’s March 2007 Special Report the total cost of proposed “military spending for FY 2008 is $647 billion.” Military spending has more than doubled since President Bush took office.

Contracts with military firms such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop and Boeing are up from “$144 billion in FY2001 to over $294 billion in FY 2006, an increase of 103%.” As one example between FY2005 and FY2006 Pentagon contracts to Boeing totaled $1.9 billion. Boeing has seen a 52.1% increase in Pentagon Contracts since 2001.

Another report by the International Peace Research Institute outlines that military buildup is also occurring world wide. Their 2007 report states that “there has been an almost 50 per cent increase in the volume of major conventional arms transfers over the past four years, reversing a downward trend after 1997.” The USA is the largest weapon supplier to the world for the eighth straight year.

According to World Policy Institute’s Arms Trade Resource Center “almost half of U.S. weapons end up in countries plagued with ongoing conflict and governed by undemocratic regimes with poor human rights records.” Of 25 developing countries buying over $12 billion in weapons from the US, all had human rights problems according to the State Department’s Human Rights Report, and 10(including three of the top five) were “undemocratic” in the sense that citizens of those nations “did not have a meaningful right to change their government” in a peaceful manner.

All disturbing facts to consider, especially while we are being told our present administration is determined to spread democracy and freedom around the world. It appears that we are in the business of building up a world at war for the profit of a few instead of building up a world of peace.

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Updated on 4-27-08