Recently the US has officially issued two sets of astronomical figures, the record-breaking figures in history. One is the USD 417.5 billion endorsed by President Bush for the bill of budget for national defence in 2005 and the other the Federal financial deficit of as high as USD 395.0 billion in the previous 10 months (a conservative estimation for annual deficit to reach USD 445.0 billion). Though the couple of figures of causality seem to be dull and tedious yet there's something of great significance behind them.

The other day at the signing ceremony in the White House Bush announced deliberately: the above-mentioned bill of budget for national defence would make the US "safer" and "would be conducive to the maintenance of world peace and honoring its commitments to allied countries" and so on. However, his true intention goes far and wide beyond.

What's the conception of that USD 417.5 billion? It takes up 1/3 of the total military expenditure of the whole world, exceeding the total military expenditure of 25 countries behind the United States putting together. It means that the US daily military expense will come to over 1.1 billion in US dollars, an average per head burden of 1,450 US dollars for the US people. However, for the 2800 million people in the world, the daily life expense per head is still less than 2 US dollars. It's a drastic contrast.

Obviously, so large an amount of military expenditure has gone far beyond the needs of the US national defence. Ever since the founding of the United States of America over 200 years ago the US continent has never suffered from any war from alien lands except the one Japanese air-raid over the Pearl Harbor during the World War II. On the contrary it is the US which has launched several aggressive wars on the lands of other countries. Geographically speaking, the US faces the sea on the east and west while the north and south are adjacent to its close allies of Mexico and Canada and the South America is taken as its "backyard". Under the present peripheral condition, how can a superpower as such and the only one in the world today be militarily threatened by other countries from without? In regard with catering to the non-traditional terror and threat there is no need for the US to expand so large a military expenditure.

In 1950, the US military expenditure accounted only for 12.4 billion US dollars. During the cold war period with the US and Former USSR fighting for world hegemony and the two military blocs confronted with each other the US military expenditure had ever reached a peak of 291.1 billion US dollars in Reagan's times. But following the end of the Cold War period the US started to enjoy what was called the "peaceful dividend" with the military expenditure once witnessing a downturn. Nevertheless, in the recent five years especially when Bush came to power the US military expenditure has seen a successive snowball effect. According to the plan of the Pentagon the US military expenditure is likely to score a breakthrough of USD 500.0 billions prior to the year of 2010.

Having experienced the "9.11" incident, people in the US begin to "feel horrified when talking of terrorist activities" with the safety problem to become a big trouble damping in the hearts of the American people. Taking the very advantage Bush administration is energetically expanding its military expenditure by flaunting the banner of fighting and preventing terrorist activities, eulogizing it for "a safer USA". But for the farsighted, it's not difficult to see through that the real purpose for Bush administration to strengthen its military background means to help push ahead the unilateral diplomatic policy, the "preemptive" military strategy and the "theory of evil axis". The ultimate goal is beyond doubt to ensure the strong power status of "one superpower only" in this world and thereby further to establish a US dominating world order. In a word, with regard to the world affairs the US wants to have it done at its own will.

However, the US overbearing policy for global expansion has met with resistance everywhere, even many of its European allies voiced "No" to it and got censured and criticized even in the homeland. The launching of Iraqi War bogged the US army deeply in the mire seeing heavy casualties of around 10,000 in number. To prevent from terrorist attack again all over the USA has been on the high alert. According to the report issued by the US State Department the year of 2003 witnessed the outbreak of 175 terrorist attacks in the world, the highest ever since 1982, causing casualties of 4271 lives and it seemed that the more anti-terrorist activities launched the more terrorist events in the world. The vehement facts express clearly that to indulge wantonly in military aggression won't do any good to solving the safety and security problem nor will it do to terrorism but will run counter to its own desire.

Of course, for Bush administration to expand its military expenditure again has something to do with economic and political problems. To expand military expenditure means to transfuse blood into the veins of the US military industry, which is conducive to helping a short-term economic growth so as to offer some support to Bush's being reelected. And those arms dealers who amass a great fortune in it will surely become Bush's "iron" supporters. However, the successive expansion of military expenditure has made the Federal finance to plunge into a "deep chasm" of financial deficit. In a few years since Bush came to power in 2001, he has not only exhausted several hundred billions of the US dollars of financial surplus left over from a consecutive 4 years of accumulation during Clinton's times but also piled up a national debt of over 1000 billion US dollars. Under such a circumstance, last year the US congress could not but raise the national debt limit from 6.4 trillion US dollars to 7.38 trillion US dollars. No wonder some persons of insight come to exclaim that this is tantamount to a "time-bomb" buried inside the US economy from a long-term point of view.

Although the US is a No.1 country of wealth in the world, it is afraid that the day will come when the US cannot support itself. Should the "snowball" military expansion goes on like this, the goal for global military expansion will eventually come to nothing under the law of economy. The history can serve as a mirror. The Washington authority should do more reading of the famous works "The Rise and fall of the Great Powers": Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 by Paul M. Kennedy, a famous professor in history of the Harvard University. If say the author intends to denote the rise and fall of the big powers in the bygone days he would rather mean to sound a warning for the days of the US in future.

By People's Daily Online