The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, June 2014 edition and written by David Swanson says, “Since the end of World War II, there have been 248 armed conflicts in 153 locations around the world. The United States launched 201 overseas military operations between the end of World War II and 2001, and since then, others, including Afghanistan and Iraq.”

The report adds, “The proportion of civilian deaths and the methods for classifying deaths as civilian are debated, but civilian war deaths constitute 85% to 90% of casualties caused by war, with about 10 civilians dying for every combatant killed in battle.”

Swanson notes, “A top defense of war is that it must be used to prevent something worse, called genocide. Not only does militarism generate genocide rather than preventing it, but the distinction between war and genocide is a very fine one at best.”

The report future notes “The United States is responsible for 41% of the world’s total military spending. The next largest in spending are China, accounting for 8.2%; Russia, 4.1%; and the United Kingdom and France, both 3.6%. . . . If all military . . . costs are included, annual [US] spending amounts to $1 trillion”.

In other words, America has apparently adopted an “total power standard,” spending more on military than most of the rest of the world combined: “The United States spent more on its military than the next 13 nations combined in 2011,” the report says.

The United States is one of the strongest supporters of the extremist-marked war in Syria which has killed tens of thousands of people over more than three years.

Washington has been conducting a provocative policy toward the crisis in Ukraine, heating tensions with Russia, causing many to suspect rise of a new cold war between the two world powers.

SHI/SHI