SACHS: DEMOCRATS & REPUBLICANS BEAT WAR DRUMS

The US political spectrum has been described as two sides of the same coin. While the Democratic Party and the Republican Party may differ on issues like LGBTQ rights, women's rights and migration, they almost always see eye to eye on US foreign policy. This is partly what is driving up the country’s debt burden, explained economist Jeffrey Sachs several months ago on Democracy Now.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, US defence spending in 2022 accounted for almost 40 per cent of global military expenditures. That year, US military support for Ukraine required a $71 billion increase in expenditures, pushing the United States to spend more than the next ten countries combined, compared to surpassing the next nine countries in 2021.

US military violence has been unleashed under various pretences to line the pockets of the military-industrial complex, a term used to describe the US military establishment as well as private companies that develop weaponry for US 'defence.' Meanwhile, the country’s infrastructure is crumbling, many cannot afford healthcare, and more than a half-million are homeless (a conservative estimate), to name a few challenges.

Rather than acknowledging that its domestic situation is unravelling, that its wars have failed and that its debt burden has ballooned, the United States is doubling. It has a military presence all across Africa through its Africa Command (AFRICOM) while goading China.

What's a failing empire to do? Let us know in the comments.

Video credit: @democracynow