The United States' military expenditures today account for about 40 percent of the world total. In 2012, the US spent some $682bn on its military - an amount more than what was spent by the next 13 countries combined.

Now that the war in Iraq is over and the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan will be complete in 2014, the stage might therefore appear to be set for a decrease in US defence spending. Even in Washington DC, many have argued that the defence budget can be cut substantially and the resulting "peace dividend" could be diverted to more pressing domestic concerns, such as dealing with the nation's continuing economic problems.

The Pentagon's joint chiefs of staff have appeared before Congress warning of dire results from the impacts of sequestration, a requirement to reduce defence spending by $500bn over 10 years that grew out of a 2011 budget deal between President Obama and Congress. In March, sequestration led to a $41bn cut in 2013 defence spending.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2013/04/2013424113558268754.html

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Here we revisit ancient history, back to the dawn of civilisation, when people used to fight with sticks of wood. After this, people trumpeted to make the walls of Jericho fall... Rarely wars are fought for "defense", but mostly are the result of self-interests and greed, in which we always blame the other side for making us do it... We need excuses — including calling god on our side —  Sometimes these excuses in defence are valid, more often they are not... 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/1107

... We remember the uniforms of war. Up to the 19th century, uniforms were designed to identify the enemy in contrast with one's own troops on the battlefields. The red coats are the Poms, the blue uniforms are our own. We fight at 200 paces with volleys of inaccurate shrapnel... Since WWI, the uniforms have been designed to make soldiers as invisible as possible in order to minimise the numbers of casualties. 

Instead of a thousand dead, many millions soldiers died. This could be seen as a paradox. No, it's simple. As soldiers could hide, conflicts lingered on beyond one singular battle, and became one giant cat and mouse game in which suicidal assaults would have provided some relief for desperate men.

As the purpose of war became more stupid, the strength of armament increased. Gas, guns, bigger bombs, cluster bombs, stronger explosives, atom bombs... By then one could see that the annihilation of the planet was on the card. New device had to be invented to wage wars in a more minimalist way... Big toys are still on the horizon but they are mostly used for peacock displays, while the really bum fights is done in "miniature"...

Drones are an extension of model planes and German V1 rockets... Drones come in many shape and sizes... From the sheer power of a fully armed bomber the size of a fighter jet to a tiny 4-rotor thingy one can buy at Paddy's market for 20 bucks — including onboard camera transmitting images in MP3. 

The miniaturisation of warfare instruments is quite amazing... Here we have little mechanical spying (soon to come: the exploding ones) critters that can roll into spaces my roaming huntsman spiders could not fit in... Even the soldier's badges are designed to be seen only by the friendly side (specific infrared frequency)... The soldier has no visible identification to the enemy... Actually, the entire outfit is more or less invisible in most conditions, except when hit in a fluorescent paint-ball game or when blood oozes from unfortunate wounds.

Meanwhile the Russians still have big ballistic missiles, on trucks, that we hope will never be launched since the USA has no defence against them, according to serious reports... This is due to the missiles' ability to avoid detection and whizz around by changing course to avoid destruction should they be detected... 

Now... Is saving the world from our stupidity worth it?... Who knows... I guess so.

The number of casualties is low, but the numbers of PTSD is increasing rapidly. We used to be proud soldiers, now we are trained killers... The psychology of the trooper has shifted. Even during the great war, chance had a lot to do will killing someone. One rarely aimed a weapon at a specific person, but rather to a target that was a gun emplacement or a torpedo factory... The weapons and our shooting skills were poor... Nowadays, one aims specifically at people, in order to limit the collateral damage. Yet collateral damage occurs and one becomes mortified twice over. After the great wars, soldiers hardly talked about their battles including their battle with their own self — all about the atrocity of war and losing mates... Now we chastise our own self for being a deliberate killer... It can be surreal, as if we were someone else... Thus we have to paint the enemy as completely "evil" in order to cleanse our heart burns...

The war budget increases with PTSD...

Opa Adolph war magazines with glorious uniforms are long gone... He was too old to fight so he spent his time making uniforms — the green ones that were hard to spot in a Black Forest...

My German mates always remind me Germans don't have cenotaphs. No remembrance day... No shame to it, no, nothing like that... They don't commemorate not because they've lost the wars... and it's not a snub to their dead soldiers either. It is to honour the living, in peace, publicly, and let the mourning be a private affair. War widows are looked after.

Our enemy is at most a few thousands of idiots but we build them up as if they were hundred of millions to justify our war budgets... 

99.9 per cent of people on earth want peace... We arm our armies with 20 per cent of our budgets to hit the 0.1 per cent of which we, ourselves, are half.

http://www.armyrecognition.com/united_states_american_defence_

ReconRobotics is the world leader in tactical micro-robot systems, an entirely new class of robots that it first introduced in 2007. Worldwide, more than 3,700 of the company’s Recon Scout® and Throwbot® systems have been deployed by the U.S. military and international friendly forces, and by nearly 500 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

These micro-robots protect the lives of law enforcement personnel and warfighters by providing immediate situational awareness and greater standoff distance during high-risk operations. Sublimely simple and incredibly durable, the Throwbot XT weighs just 1.2lbs (540g), and yet it can survive throws of 120 feet (36m) and deliver both video and audio reconnaissance within dangerous environments.

ReconRobotics was formed in 2006 to commercialize robotics technology developed at the University of Minnesota Distributed Robotics Laboratory under funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The company is headquartered in Edina, Minnesota, and bases its international operations in Lugano, Switzerland. ReconRobotics now markets its products through a distribution network in 33 countries. Among the users of its robot systems are the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as many federal agencies, including the U.S. Marshals, DEA, Border Patrol, FBI and ATF. 

One day, our senses will take the better of us as a species... We will become peaceful without the need for killing someone... But I doubt it...

http://www.smallarmsoftheworld.com/index.cfm proud of its cartoons:

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Is the manufacture of weapons reinforcing the idea of war, of fight, of killing? Of course. It's easier to destroy than to comprehend, accept or share. And this has been going for millions of years...

Can we change this perspective? Yes we can and only humanism can.

Religions and politics are a dead loss on this issue.