For a second, imagine a world without the United States of America—specifically, a world where the U.S. withdrew from international affairs entirely.
To some of us who fall into the all-too-attractive mentality of anti-Americanism, this may seem like a fantastic premise, as the current world hegemon has been criticized over the last 20 years or so as a malicious, imperialistic, military-industrial police state.
But, if this was the case, then anyone under the U.S. defence umbrella—including Canada—would have to kiss their robust social programs goodbye to buckle down and boost defence spending to at least three per cent of GDP or more.
So if we approach the massive U.S. defence budget, which is set to be increased to just under $700 billion USD, we may be able to appreciate the necessity for the more-than-excessive defence bill the U.S. must foot on an annual basis. The U.S.’s defence budget this year is the highest it has ever been, and is set to increase to $716 billion USD next year.
Take, for example, the fact that the U.S. pays 67 per cent of NATO’s budget of over $936 billion USD on an annual basis, while the rest of the 29 member states—save for five nations such as Poland—contribute less than two per cent of their GDP to the defence of the North Atlantic.
This alone is testament to the absurd amount of responsibility placed on the U.S. after the Second World War—to not only defend its own borders and citizenry, but the borders of its allies in Europe, the Pacific, and North America. If it weren’t for the expansive U.S. defence umbrella, and its consequential need for big spending from the Americans, Canada and many other U.S. allies would actually have to maintain sizeable military forces stripping funding from expensive programs such as universal healthcare.
At the same time, we have no problem criticizing the U.S. for lacking universal healthcare, despite the fact that the U.S. defends us from external threats for almost no cost. If the U.S. were to dissolve their defence umbrella, the safety of nations like Israel, Japan, South Korea, and the entirety of Europe would almost certainly fall victim to the expansionism of other great powers.
Remember the World Wars that occured when the U.S. drew back from international relations less than a century ago? Or, the fact that Russia is currently raging a hybrid warfare in Ukraine as I type this very letter? Or, consider the more terrifying idea of China being able to expand freely into the Pacific due to a lack of U.S. military presence, leaving the future of small Pacific countries unclear?
The ever-looming presence of external threats we all seem to forget about have not gone away. They exist—even if the rest of the free world refuses to acknowledge them in their annual fiscal budgets—and they are being eliminated or held at bay by our neighbour to the South.
