Donald trump throughout his election campaign had been talking about" making America great." His concept of greatness is increased military expenditure. He plans to ask for another $54 billion for the military. Donald has justified the increase on the ground that American military needs an overhaul. He is of the view that Americans don't win anywhere. He has also stated that if you fight you must win or don't fight at all. This is his rationale for an increase in the defense budget.
The US defense budget is $600 billion. This is a massive budget and is more than the total defense budget of 7 nations that follow the USA in the defense budget.
The increase of 10% is more than the entire Indian defense budget. The Indian armed forces are the 4th largest in the world
Bigger defense allocation
Donald had all along been advocating to "restore" American military superiority. He has set the ball rolling by asking for an extra $54 billion. Obviously, there will be some cost cutting in other departments. Perhaps aid to some countries like Pakistan and Jordan will be cut. He could also carry out a saving in NATO expenditure by insisting the member countries contribute more
No manpower increase
The hike in the budget may not amount to an increase in manpower. Much of it will be spent on new warships as the Navy is likely to get priority. The extra expenditure is still to be discussed in Congress and probably will be fine tuned.
However, Congress is unlikely to stop it and mostly Donald will get what he wants.
The increase in the US defense budget could lead to some increase in Chinese and Russian defense budgets. However, both these nations spend a fraction of the US defense budget
Morale and the soldier
The cost cutting to finance the additional defense allocation will be essential.irement.
Donald may well be aware that military hardware by itself does not win a war. If this was true American army would have won decisively in Vietnam and Afghanistan. The man behind the machine is important. In addition prolonged wars thousands of miles from home affect morale. This is the essential ingredient, and Donald needs to be aware of it.
