The United States is First in War, But Trailing in
Crucial Aspects of Modern Civilization
Lawrence
Wittner
December
29, 2018
Z
Magazine
Maybe
those delirious crowds chanting “USA, USA” have got something. When it
comes to military power, the United States reigns supreme. Newsweek reported
in March 2018: “The United States has the strongest military in the
world,” with over 2 million military personnel and vast numbers of the most
advanced nuclear missiles, military aircraft, warships, tanks, and other modern
weapons of war. Furthermore, as the New York Times noted,
“the United States also has a global presence unlike any other nation, with
about 200,000 active duty troops deployed in more than 170 countries.” This
presence includes some 800 overseas U.S. military bases.
In
2017 (the last year for which global figures are available), the U.S.
government accounted for over a third of the world’s military
expenditures―more than the next 7 highest-spending countries combined.
Not satisfied, however, President Trump and Congress pushed through a mammoth
increase in the annual U.S. military budget in August 2018, raising it
to $717 billion. Maintaining the U.S. status as “No. 1” in war and
war preparations comes at a very high price.
That
price is not only paid in dollars—plus massive death and suffering in
warfare―but in the impoverishment of other key sectors of American life.
After all, this lavish outlay on the military now constitutes
about two-thirds of the U.S. government’s discretionary
spending. And these other sectors of American life are in big trouble.
Let’s
consider education. The gold standard for evaluation seems to be the
Program for International Student Assessment of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development, which tests 15-year old students every few years.
The last test, which occurred in 2015 and involved 540,000 students in 72
nations and regions, found that U.S. students ranked 24th in
reading, 25th in science, and 41st in mathematics.
When the scores in these three areas were combined, U.S. students ranked
31st―behind the students of Slovenia, Poland, Russia, and Vietnam.
The
educational attainments among many other Americans are also dismal. An
estimated 30 million adult Americans cannot read, write, or do basic
math above a third grade level. Literacy has different definitions and,
for this reason among others, estimates vary about the level of illiteracy in
the United States. But one of the most favorable rankings of the United
States for literacy places it in a tie with numerous other nations for 26th;
the worst places it at 125th.
The
U.S. healthcare system also fares poorly compared to that of other
nations. A 2017 study of healthcare systems in 11 advanced
industrial countries by the Commonwealth Fund found that the United States
ranked at the very bottom of the list. Furthermore, numerous nations with
far less “advanced” economies have superior healthcare systems to that of the
United States. According to the World Health Organization, the U.S.
healthcare system ranks 37th among countries―behind that of
Colombia, Cyprus, and Morocco.
Not
surprisingly, American health is relatively poor. The infant
mortality rate in the United States is higher than in 54 other lands,
including Belarus, Cuba, Greece, and French Polynesia. According to the
World Cancer Research Fund, the United States has the 5th highest
cancer rate of the 50 countries it studied. For the past few years,
as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported, U.S.
life expectancy has been declining and, today, the United States
reportedly ranks 53rd among 100 nations in life
expectancy.
Despite
the fact that the United States is the world’s richest nation, it also has an
unusually high level of poverty. According to a 2017 UNICEF report,
over 29 percent of American children live in impoverished circumstances,
placing the United States 35th in childhood poverty among the
41 richest nations. Indeed, the United States has a higher percentage of
its people living in poverty (15.1 percent) than 41 other countries, including
Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, and Sri Lanka.
Nor
does the United States rate very well among nations on environmental
issues. According to the Environmental Performance Index, produced
by Yale University and Columbia University in 2018, the United States placed 27th among
the countries it ranked on environmental health and ecosystem vitality.
The Social Progress Index, another well-respected survey that rates
countries on their environmental records, ranked the United States 36th in
wastewater treatment, 39th in access to at least basic drinking
water, and 73rd in greenhouse gas emissions.
Actually,
the findings of the Social Progress Index are roughly the same as other
evaluators in a broad range of areas. Its 2018 report concluded
that that the United States ranked 63rd in primary school
enrollment, 61st in secondary school enrollment, 76th in
access to quality education, 40th in child mortality rate, 62nd in
maternity mortality rate, 36th in access to essential health
services, 74th in access to quality healthcare, and 35th in
life expectancy at age 60. In addition, it rated the United States as 33rd in
political killings and torture, 88th in homicide rate, 47th in
political rights, and 67th in discrimination and violence
against minorities. All in all, there’s nothing here to cheer about.
Does
the U.S. government’s priority for military spending explain, at least
partially, the discrepancy between the worldwide preeminence of the U.S. armed
forces and the feeble global standing of major American domestic
institutions? Back in April 1953, President Dwight
Eisenhower pointed to their connection. Addressing the American
Society of Newspaper editors, he declared: “Every gun that is made, every
warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft
from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not
clothed.” A militarized world “is not spending money alone. It is
spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of
its children.”
People
infatuated with military supremacy should give that some thought.
Lawrence
Wittner (http://www.lawrenceswittner.com)
is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY/Albany and the author
of Confronting the Bomb (Stanford University Press).
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Source URL: https://portside.org/2018-12-30/united-states-first-war-trailing-crucial-aspects-modern-civilization
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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