A European joint defense may be necessary to avoid stretching national budgets(Photo: Deutsche-Welle)
EU Defense a Possible Victim of Financial Crisis: Analysts
-- Deutsche Welle
-- Deutsche Welle
With the global financial crisis taking hold and governments on both sides of the Atlantic rushing to the aid of banks, analysts have forecast a potential long-term downsizing of military budgets in Europe and the US.
The pressure that has been applied by the current crisis and uncertainty over whether the $700-billion US bailout scheme will in fact have a significantly remedying effect on the world's financial woes may make some military spending difficult to justify, the defense analysts, from London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Tuesday.
"I can't see defense is going to escape any kind of austerity measures," said defense economist Mark Stoker from the London institute, as quoted by Reuters.
"It would be very difficult for any government to justify cutting health and education in favour of, say, building two aircraft carriers and buying a load of planes to stick on them."
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My Comment: This Deutsche-Welle article will be one of many reports advocating the downgrading of European military budgets. But even if the military is eliminated, Europe's budgets are mostly social and welfare expenditures .... not military. This is a red herring that many supporters of government social policy have trouble reconciling.