Apparently George W. Bush is going to ask for a $48 billion increase in the defense budget during his State of the Union Address tonight. How big is $48 billion?
In 2000, the entire international arms trade was a mere $29.3 billion according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. That means just the increase Bush is proposing would be enough to buy every single weapon sold by one country to another in 2000, and still have $18.7 billion left over.
Can anyone guess who the number one exporter and importer of weapons were in 2000?
Surprise — the number one exporter of weapons was the United States, which accounted for half of all international arms sales, and the number on importer was Saudi Arabia.