So what if the US outspends the rest of us?

US President George W. Bush this week proposed a US defence budget totalling $623 billion. It is a vast, nearly obscene amount - which sounds only slightly better in euros, given the weak dollar: €481.6bn.

This is not only larger than any other defence budget in the world, or indeed nearly all other national defence budgets combined, it is actually larger than most overall national budgets, including those of the developed world. One analyst reckoned it would be the 17th biggest, just behind the Dutch national budget.

To be absolutely accurate, the actual defence budget requested is $481.4bn (€372.18bn), which in itself is an 11% increase over last year. The balance of the request is in emergency funding for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007-08 and for counter terrorism needs.

But whichever way you look at the figures, they are alarming, for three main reasons. First, because such a huge amount of money to be spent on troops and materiel for conflict in a world still suffering from hunger, deprivation and disease in various quarters simply jars. One does not need to be a card-carrying member of a pacifist non-governmental organisation to feel this to be, as noted, nearly or properly obscene. Nor does one need to raise the spectre of AIDS ravaging Africa when apparently 40% of US citizens have no medical insurance. Such disproportion must be dangerous to the very fabric of society. For even in a country based upon a contract where the winner takes all there is a need to keep a more equitable balance between internal and external spending.

The second reason for alarm at this budget is that it in many ways suggests throwing good money after bad. More bluntly put: money and spending are not proof of being the global super- power. Given that the US military is taking a beating in Iraq and has yet to resolve its conflict in Afghanistan, is it really the most powerful? If North Korea can announce it has gone nuclear (though the assertion is not yet proven) while more than 20,000 US troops are stationed on its border and Iran can continue to taunt the world with its nuclear intents while nearly 150,000 US troops are positioned in neighbouring Iraq, what value to supreme military power?

The French philosopher Michel Foucault suggested that power is not a possession but a relationship - and the current US situation points to the veracity of this postulation.

The possession of more and more expensive military capabilities does not seem to make the US more powerful. Rather than spending so much money, it may want to work on its power relationships rather than possessions.

Third and finally, tabling such a huge defence budget is ultimately counter- productive with one’s allies. Since the end of the Cold War most EU member states - old and new - have effectively taken the "peace dividend" and stopped spending on defence while the US has increased its defence budget year on year. This trend created a growing gulf between US and European capabilities - one massively widened after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, when the US began its climb of 10% increases year on year.

With this proposed new budget the difference between the US and all EU member states together is now so vast it makes no difference whether the latter do or do not increase their own spending to a more realistic level: in comparison to the US they will be as nothing. While most EU governments probably do not think of the issue in such terms, it is a reality they constantly reflect, not least in their steady unwillingness to increase their capabilities within NATO, where the US constantly complains of these inadequacies.

When one ally is so manifestly stronger than all others, though not necessarily powerful, there is little incentive to build up one’s strength. On the other hand, that was the driving logic of creating alternative EU capabilities, separate from the US. In light of this budget, it may be time for the EU member states to focus on that idea slightly more seriously.

• Ilana Bet-El is an academic, author and policy adviser based in Brussels.

US President George W. Bush this week proposed a US defence budget totalling $623 billion. It is a vast, nearly obscene amount - which sounds only slightly better in euros, given the weak dollar: €481.6bn.

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