LETTER: The US war business is the world’s worst contributor to climate change
The US and Nato countries spend $1.5-trillion of the $2-trillion spent globally each year on war preparations. Russia, by comparison, spent $41bn in 2021
Thousands of people in Europe are dying of excessive heat. People in Asia, Africa and Latin America are losing their lives and livelihoods to floods. US states are burning. It is time the international community realises the US war business is by far the world’s worst polluter and contributor to climate change. The US and Nato countries spend $1.5-trillion of the $2-trillion spent globally each year on war preparations (Russia spent $41bn in 2021). A fraction of that could alleviate this global crisis.
UN reports reveal that in 1960, there were 1.5-million refugees. Now that estimate is 100-million. This escalation is largely the result of America’s “forever wars”, intended to impose worldwide US military and financial hegemony.
The US has lost every war it waged since World War 2, but Washington doesn’t care as long as the profits flow back to their war business sponsors. Having systematically provoked Russia into the war in Ukraine for years, it is now losing that war.
Forgetting how it eagerly imposed financial sanctions against Russia, the EU now whines that Russian retaliation is “blackmailing” it over gas and oil. The EU economy will collapse if this war continues another six months. As phase three of the Russian offensive escalates, the Ukraine proxy will have to beg for peace.
The US claims that Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran and China are “existential threats” to US national security. Yet Washington’s intensions after defeating Russia were to wage a war against China, illustrated by Nancy Pelosi’s scheme to provoke that war via some incident in Taiwan.
Given its obsessions with wars, it’s the US that is an existential threat to the globe. We may not care for the Russian or Chinese political systems, but it’s time for the world to demand an end to US militarism.
Terry Crawford-Browne, World Beyond War SA
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