Random Post: World Miliary Rankings, ...as of September 2006

[OrangeEmpire]

http://www.globalfirepower.com/

Random post on an interesting site.

I was surprised to see England was ranked #10, and beat out by Brazil, India, and the frogs.

Mexico beats Iran, the presumed next target on Bush's list of "evildoer nations."

If Mexico ranks as the 14th most powerful country (even beating out Canada), why are they so "poor" that they have to export their population to the US, for us to support them?


South Korea beat out North Korea.

1 United States
2 Russia
3 China
4 India
5 Germany
6 France
7 Japan
8 Turkey
9 Brazil
10 Great Britain
11 Italy
12 South Korea
13 Indonesia
14 Mexico
15 Canada
16 Iran
17 Egypt
18 North Korea
19 Spain
20 Pakistan
21 Australia
22 Saudi Arabia
23 Thailand
24 Argentina
25 Sweden
26 Israel
27 Greece
28 Taiwan
29 Syria
30 Philippines
31 Poland
32 Ukraine
33 Norway
34 Iraq
35 Libya
36 Venezuela
37 Lebanon
38 Nepal
39 Afghanistan

The US military spending was almost two-fifths of the total.
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.
It was more than the combined spending of the next 14 nations.
The United States and its close allies accounted for some two thirds to three-quarters of all military spending, depending on who you count as close allies (typically NATO countries, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and South Korea)
The six potential “enemies,” Russia, and China together spent $139 billion, 30% of the U.S. military budget.

 

[OneManGang]

Bear in mind several things: 1) American military personnel are paid a LOT more than grognards in the Russian or Chinese armies, 2) The US defense budget also pays for generous retirement packages and enlistment incentives that other countries do not. 3) Communist countries pay essentially whatever they please for equipment they manufacture themsleves i.e. they may say a 152mm howitzer cost $25000.00 when in actuality (new on the market) it would run $1mill or more 4) Foreign Military Sales are also factored into the US budget - in which the Dept of Defense "fronts" the money to manufacturers for the goods (planes, tanks, etc.) which are then built to the buyer's specs and paid for by them at delivery. 5) No other country maintains the planetary network of bases that we do. Most all of these bases are leased from the host nation and employ thousands of host-nation workers. these bases give us the capacity to respond to crises in ways others can only dream of.

Nobody expects the Russians or the Chicoms to bail them out of a sticky situation. A perfect example was the tsunami a few years back. American ships and planes were on the scene a week before anybody else even got out of harbor. The Russians sent a couple of 40-year-old transports that prompty broke down.