While FY 2008 budget requests for US military spending are known, for most other countries, the most recent data is from 2005 (at time of writing). Using US spending at that time, we can compare US military spending with the rest of the world:
- 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” plus Russia and China together spent $139 billion, 30% of the U.S. military budget.
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