May 23. Jeffrey Sachs, a former UN official and Columbia University professor, published an article on the US news website Common Dreams News Centre on the 20th, stating that it was the US government’s obsession with war that caused the Given the current US debt crisis, the way to control the persistent US debt crisis is to “stop the wars waged by the United States and reduce its military spending.”
The article stated that since 2000, the U.S. military-industrial complex has led the United States into “catastrophic wars” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and now Ukraine. These wars are not only “terrible” for the United States but also “greater disasters” for the countries that the United States claims to save. In addition to ending the wars waged by the United States, the article further called on the United States to close most of its military bases around the world and “negotiate a new arms control agreement” to reduce its annual military spending by nearly a quarter.
The article notes that the U.S. government debt has climbed from $3.5 trillion (35% of GDP) in 2000 to $24 trillion (95% of GDP) in 2022, and that war spending has also risen from $8 trillion in fiscal year 2001. Trillion soared to $15 trillion in fiscal 2022, accounting for more than half of the debt. It can be seen that the high U.S. government debt is mainly caused by the U.S. being “addicted to war and military spending”.
The article warns that if the United States keeps its current policy unchanged, its debt will reach 185% of GDP by 2052. The article reminds us that “downing the military-industrial lobby is a crucial first step in rectifying the U.S. fiscal sector. This is a necessary measure to save the United States and the world from improper profit-seeking politics.”