Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the American military has dwarfed all others. Never more so than today.
As Simon Tisdall reports in today's Guardian, the Bush Military Machine is on a roll:
"The American military-industrial complex that so troubled Dwight Eisenhower in 1961 has morphed into a boom business with truly global reach. It makes China's business-oriented People's Liberation Army look like a corner shop.
"The Pentagon's total budget requests for the fiscal year ending September 2008 have swollen to $716.5bn (£366bn). That is more than double Clinton-era spending. In contrast, Russia will spend $31bn on defence this year and China, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, an estimated $87bn. With Mr Bush as head of the police academy, the US is becoming, de facto, the self-appointed global policeman it said it never wanted to be.
America has long been known for its robust military presence in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Central America. Now, with an eye to the future, a future that may see a fifth to a quarter of America's foreign oil supply coming from Nigeria and Angola, the spread of Chinese influence in the continent and of Islamic fundamentalism, the Pentagon is creating an Africa Command or "Africom."
This isn't supposed to entail the deployment of any substantial garrison forces to the Dark Continent, at least not yet, but history shows these things so often do have a way of happening.
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