Our defense budget has increased out of all proportion to any military threat to the United States, and to our domestic social, economic and environmental needs.
The United States government must reduce our defense budget to half of its current size. The 2012 defense budget exceeded $700 billion, and that does not take into account military expenditures not placed under the defense budget.
The U.S. has over 700 foreign military bases. Our government must phase out all bases not specifically functioning under a U.N. resolution to keep peace and bring home our troops stationed abroad, except for the military assigned to protect a U.S. embassy. Many of these bases are small and can be closed immediately. Further reductions in U.S. foreign military bases at a rate of closure of 1/4 to 1/5 of their numbers every year.
The U.S. outpaces all other nations in military expenditures. World military spending totaled more than $1.6 trillion in 2015. The U.S. accounted for 37 percent of the total. U.S. military expenditures are roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined.
There needs to be a freeze on large military weapons procurements until other serious domestic and climate change issues have been addressed. Climate Security is a National Security threat.
We must build on the Earth Charter that came out of the 1992 U.N. environmental Earth Summit. New definitions of what constitutes real security between nations must be debated and adopted by the foreign policy community.
Sources: Green Party
Project On Government Oversight (POGO)
National Priorities Project (NPP)
American Security Project (ASP)
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Green Party Platform on the Issues
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