90%

[Annie]

Gotta love the blogs!

http://www.rightreason.org/2004/10/what-other-countries-senator.html

What Other Countries, Senator?
Kerry has made a big deal about America shouldering "90%" of the burden in Iraq. There's a perfectly good reason, though, as for why no other country is remotely our equal in the reconstruction. That's because there is no other country in the world that could be remotely our equal partner.

Here are some numbers I put together from the CIA World Factbook. There are 17 nations in the world whose GDP exceeds $500 billion. There are 10 nations in the world whose GDP exceeds $1 trillion. There are 5 nations in the world whose GDP exceeds $2 trillion. There are three nations whose GDP exceeds $3.5 trillion. They are:

Japan: $3.56 trllion ($28,000 per capita)
China: $6.449 trillion ($5,000 per capita)
United States $10.98 trillion ($37,800 per capita)

That means the United States exceeds the combined GDP (both total and per capita) of the two next largest economies. The US GDP exceeds the combined totals of nations #4-9 ($10.98 trillion vs. $10.163 trillion). The US GDP exceeds the combined totals of the 10 largest European economies (Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, and the Ukraine) $10.98 trillion-$10.757 trillion. Let's exclude Russia and the Ukraine, and the US surpasses the combined GDP of 16 largest economies in Europe ($10.98 trillion to $10.831 trillion). The only "nation" that surpasses America in per capita GDP is Luxembourg, a grand duchy the size of Rhode Island but with half the population.

In military matters, the US spends $370.7 billion. This exceeds the next 15 largest defense budgets combined ($370.7 billion-$365.4 billion). Out of those 15, the US has assistance from 6 nations (formerly 7, before Spain Muniched out) totalling defense expenditures of $154 billion. So out of the top 16 defense spenders in the world, 7 are in Iraq. Those that are not: China, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, Brazil, Spain, Canada, and Israel. Out of that list, half (China, Russia, Saudia Arabia, India, and Israel) can safely be put in the category of "We either don't won't their help, or their help would be counterproductive."

So tell me, out of France, Germany, Brazil, Spain, or Canda (total defesne budget: $110.3 billion, less than 1/3 of US defense spending), which ones would have to join before it would be a real alliance?

We have to get used to the fact that this is no longer World War II, where it took grand alliances of the largest nations to bring down alliances of nearly-as-large nations. This is a war of us versus them, and anyone who wants to join us in that fight is welcome to, but at this point we're rich enough that we can do it alone. I'm not saying we don't want allies (any money that others spend achieving our objectives is gravy), but this whole alliance talk upsets me at times. If we have to give up things to get unneeded help (attn: France, Germany), it's not worth it. We don't know what Kerry would give up, but it's hard to imagine his summits convincing them to help without giving them concessions of some sort.

More on this below.


posted by Apollo Morgan @ 2:30 PM

 

[onedomino]

Gotta love the blogs!

http://www.rightreason.org/2004/10/what-other-countries-senator.html

The GDP information (there is more than one way to calculate GDP) in this article is not correct; especially the Chinese reference.

http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP.pdf


Total GDP 2003 (millions of US dollars)

Ranking
1 United States 10,881,609
2 Japan 4,326,444
3 Germany 2,400,655
4 United Kingdom 1,794,858
5 France 1,747,973
6 Italy 1,465,895
7 China 1,409,852
8 Spain 836,100
9 Canada 834,390
10 Mexico 626,080
11 Korea, Rep. 605,331
12 India 598,966
13 Australia 518,382
14 Netherlands 511,556
15 Brazil 492,338
16 Russian Federation 433,491
17 Switzerland 309,465
18 Belgium 302,217
19 Sweden 300,795
20 Austria 251,456
21 Turkey 237,972
22 Norway 221,579
23 Denmark 212,404
24 Poland 209,563
25 Indonesia 208,311
26 Saudi Arabia 188,479
27 Greece 173,045
28 Finland 161,549
29 South Africa 159,886
30 Hong Kong, China 158,596

World Development Indicators database, World Bank, September 2004

 

[Annie]

The GDP information (there is more than one way to calculate GDP) in this article is not correct; especially the Chinese reference.

http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP.pdf


Total GDP 2003 (millions of US dollars)

Ranking
1 United States 10,881,609
2 Japan 4,326,444
3 Germany 2,400,655
4 United Kingdom 1,794,858
5 France 1,747,973
6 Italy 1,465,895
7 China 1,409,852
8 Spain 836,100
9 Canada 834,390
10 Mexico 626,080
11 Korea, Rep. 605,331
12 India 598,966
13 Australia 518,382
14 Netherlands 511,556
15 Brazil 492,338
16 Russian Federation 433,491
17 Switzerland 309,465
18 Belgium 302,217
19 Sweden 300,795
20 Austria 251,456
21 Turkey 237,972
22 Norway 221,579
23 Denmark 212,404
24 Poland 209,563
25 Indonesia 208,311
26 Saudi Arabia 188,479
27 Greece 173,045
28 Finland 161,549
29 South Africa 159,886
30 Hong Kong, China 158,596

World Development Indicators database, World Bank, September 2004

Sounds fine with me, run the same with your numbers?

 

[onedomino]

The calculations in the article would have different results. Nevertheless the point of the article is valid.

 

[Annie]

The calculations in the article would have different results. Nevertheless the point of the article is valid.

That is what I thought, though my math skills always leave me wondering...

 

[MtnBiker]

Any infromation on total military assests other countries have? Countries that Senator Kerry believes he can romance into a "grand diversion", do those countries even have military assest that they can put into Iraq? And if so will his 90 percent even change?

 

[Annie]

Any infromation on total military assests other countries have? Countries that Senator Kerry believes he can romance into a "grand diversion", do those countries even have military assest that they can put into Iraq? And if so will his 90 percent even change?

Couldn't find anything from government, other than WMD holdings. I did find this: http://homepage.eircom.net/~steven/armedforces.htm

which is well organized, but who knows how accurate?