U.S. post-Cold War military spending

The graph to the right from the Economist shows U.S. military spending in 2008 compared to other nations. The U.S. easily surpasses the next 14 biggest spenders combined. Only Israel spends more per person.

The United States has very legitimate defense needs and, of course, is currently involved in a nasty conflict in central Asia overlapping Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. The United States may soon find itself in a military conflict on the Korean peninsula. Still, twenty years after the end of the Cold War, this level of spending by any measure is huge.