TEHRAN- The U.S. Senate has passed legislation for the Pentagon budget next year. A whopping $858 billion. The unprecedented package is $45 billion more than President Joe Biden had requested and is set to have consequences for global peace and security.  

The bill is the largest budget in the history of the world. It is about three to four times larger than the budget of China whose population last year stood at 1.412 billion, in comparison to the 331.9 million of the United States.

It is also a conservative budget as it does not include other aspects of the U.S. military such as America’s nuclear weapons program, which is in the region of trillions of dollars. Nor does it include the Central Intelligence Agency. Last year, Congress gave the CIA $25 billion more than it asked for.

Experts say this huge U.S. military budget supports a network of global occupation. An occupation that has a military presence that includes Europe, parts of East Asia, in particular Japan and South Korea, nations across West Asia, and parts of Africa.

The amount of money being spent on the military has been met with anger among Americans, especially during this period of economic hardship on the backdrop of a global pandemic and war in Ukraine.

Since 2001, conservative estimates suggest the U.S. has spent at least '20 trillion dollars' on war and military adventurism abroad.

This is while the latest $858 billion bill has no purpose to protect the people of the United States. Nobody is threatening the U.S. mainland which raises the question of why such a large amount is being spent by Washington on its military.

Nearly half of the U.S. discretionary budget is wasted on the military.

The diversion of these resources could be used for feeding, clothing, educating, building, and treating Americans back home who are desperately in need of such services.

There is a lack of healthcare or enough housing, adequate food and clean water, or a clean environment inside the United States. These issues are rarely mentioned by the U.S. media.

There has been a very extensive propaganda campaign inside the U.S. in support of the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine, which seems to have won. This campaign is being launched by bipartisan parties in Congress.

This is a war that could have easily been avoided and prevented the suffering of the Ukrainian people as well as citizens across Europe.

The huge amount of money in the military is being used to support the U.S.'s declining worldwide empire. Washington has to resort to keeping this sinking empire in power and in place through militarism expenditure.

The U.S. is slipping in many ways, as far as being the dominant world power when it comes to economics and finance, and diplomacy. But it does claim to be the world’s leading military power, which other countries can depend on.

History has proven that to be false and such a claim by Washington of being the world’s number one military power is not something to be proud of considering its multiple military defeats.

The budget also allocates funds to send more military aid to Ukraine which raises the question if Washington is seeking to prolong the war.

Experts say the aim is to seek regime change in Russia, in particular, after Moscow sent its forces to Syria to help Damascus fight terrorism.

The idea of dismantling the Russian Federation has been openly talked about at the U.S. state department. It is actively holding public forums in various places with groups that the U.S. claims are “repressed nationalities” in Russia under the context of “liberation movements”.

Critics say Washington is doing or trying to do what was done to the Soviet Union in 1991.

But critics also say some policymakers at the U.S. State Department are under the illusion or delusional enough to believe that Washington can re-enact the events of 1991 (when the Soviet Union was dissolved) and have the Russian Federation collapse by expanding NATO.

Washington is playing with fire in Ukraine as Russia says if it sends Patriot missile batteries to Kyiv, that means American military personnel would be operating the missile systems.

This could pit Russian forces in direct combat with American forces and could potentially expand the war. Should the U.S. military sustain casualties by Russian retaliatory attacks, this would lead to nowhere but a third world war.

It highlights the instability of America’s delusional policy-making. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan but never expected to be occupying the country for 20 years with no plans on how to withdraw until it fled in a very chaotic nature in similar scenes to Afghanistan.

The massive military policy bill also includes the authorization of up to $10 billion in military assistance and fast-tracked weapons procurement for Taiwan.

One think tank says it will allow a regional contingency stockpile that will allow the Pentagon to place weapons in Taiwan (which is part of China) for use if a military conflict with Beijing arises.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s outgoing Admiral Phil Davidson, before leaving office, said the island chain countries have to be prepared for war. In other words, places like Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and others have to prepare for war triggered by the U.S.

Analysts have interpreted this until today, as meaning that countries surrounding China have to be built up militarily so that if a war occurs with China these countries and regions get hit and suffer casualties as well as destruction.

But Washington needs the same countries and regions to have so much weaponry so they can continue fighting or serve as the basis for the U.S. to continue a war against China until victory.

It highlights how little concern the U.S. has towards those countries and how cold-blooded the U.S. approach to war is.

It also means the United States is disregarding the Shanghai Communique which recognizes on both sides of the strait, everyone recognizes only one China. Now Washington is not treating Taiwan as part of China which is very dangerous.

There has been an ongoing drive to militarize some nations surrounding China, in a similar fashion to Russia.

In Africa, the U.S. is fighting in five or six places in addition to the Ukraine war, the Yemen war, and other civil wars that Washington is waging through various proxies.

The timing of the budget comes at a time when the U.S. national debt stands at around 31 trillion dollars, which puts into question the thought process of those making decisions in America.

U.S. senators backed the bill overwhelmingly which means there is always consensus on the war in a congress that has U.S. arms companies in the pockets of lawmakers.

The military-industrial complex, along with the banks and the oil companies are the only beneficiaries of war.

Unlike healthcare, abortion, gun control, and so many other issues that take so long to pass Congress amid deep divisions between the Republicans and the Democrats, when it comes to militarism, there is no bickering at all.

The bill passed so easily in both chambers which tells you all you need to know about the priorities of Washington.