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In the post-Cold War world order, the
U.S. does not seem to want to be bound by any arms treaties. It refuses
to sign a new protocol to the 1972 biological weapons treaty because it
would require international inspections of its biological weapons
research facilities, where it is creating deadly jnew strains including
highly lethal powdered anthrax. U.S. officials say they are only
creating germ weapons in order to study how to defend against them.
[110]
Of course we would never use them ourselves!
But can other countries trust a government that bombed Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and actually developed plans to use smallpox and other
biological weapons against Vietnam and Cuba? [111]
Would you?
And U.S. "weaponized germs" not only represent a threat to people in
other countries.
What if some of the Pentagon's powdered anthrax got into the hands of
some fanatic here in the United States?
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was a serious military competitor
for the United States. Today, the U.S. maintains a huge war machine
despite the lack of any serious competition. The U.S. military budget is
now larger than the next 25 biggest spenders put together! It makes up a
full 36% of total global military spending. [112]
United States: $399 billion
Annual Military Expenditures, The world's four biggest spenders: Russia:
$65 billion; China: $47 billion; Japan: $43 billion.
Being the world cop and all, we do have certain responsibilities!
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