historiblogography

leading chef decries the act of cooking

In Australia this week, Dick Cheney criticized China for its "continued fast-paced military buildup."

Long pause.

Because if there's one thing we in the United States can't abide, it's the development of a large and expensive military establishment.

For context, see this (credible but barely literate) description of military spending in FY '06:

#The US military spending was almost 7 times larger than the Chinese budget, the second largest spender.
# The US military budget was almost 29 times as large as the combined spending of the six “rogue” states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) who spent $14.65 billion....
# The six potential “enemies,” Russia, and China together spent $139 billion, 30% of the U.S. military budget.

Of course, all of that was before the administration submitted a $739 billion defense budget this year.

Also note that the CIA puts China's defense spending at about four percent of GDP (based on its most recent estimate, from FY '05), which is precisely what prominent American hawks think is an appropriate amount for the U.S. to spend on defense as a peacetime norm.

So here we have willfully obtuse American exceptionalism at its zenith: The Chinese are irresponsible and dangerous because they spend a lot of money on their military.

I assume that people outside the U.S. just openly laugh at the man whenever he flaps his mouth.

posted by Chris Bray @ 1:07 AM