By Jun Zhengping

钧正平

The country with the highest military spending in the world has increased its military spending again. Recently, US President Joe Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA 2024). According to the budget, the US will allocate USD 886 billion for various military expenditures in fiscal year 2024, an increase of nearly USD 30 billion from the previous fiscal year, setting a record high.

全球军费最高的国家又涨军费了。近日，美国总统拜登签署了“2024财年国防授权法案”。根据预算，2024财年美国将拨款8860亿美元用于各类军费开支，较上一财年增加近300亿美元，再创历史新高。

What does USD 886 billion mean? In this regard, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said that the US' defense expenditure ranks first among the world's major countries and it is higher than the combined military expenditure of the next nine countries. It accounts for approximately 40 percent of the total global military expenditure. The US accounts for 40 percent of the world's total military expenditure with four percent of the world's population. This proportion is astonishing.

8860亿美元是个什么概念？对此，国防部发言人表示：“美国国防费用在世界主要国家中名列第一，高于其后9个国家军费的总和，约占全球军费开支总额40%。”美国以全球4%的人口，花掉了全球40%的军费，这个比例着实让人吃惊。

Such astronomically huge military expenditures should be backed by a strong financial foundation. However, the US national debt is currently high and has exceeded USD 30 trillion, and people's livelihood in the country is also very difficult. Despite this, the politicians of the US are still full of political calculations, disregarding people's livelihood to increase the military force and insisting on maintaining its strong military image, which is merely robbing Peter to pay Paul.

按理说，如此天文数字的巨额军费支出，理应有强大的财政基础做后盾。然而目前美国国债高筑，已突破30万亿美元，国内民生也是多艰。可尽管如此，美国政客们还是满脑子政治算计，拆民生的“东墙”补武力的“西墙”，执意维持本国在军事上的强势形象。

For the US, which is accustomed to "creating enemies even if they do not exist," the "Chinese military threat" has naturally become an excellent excuse for it to increase military spending. What is ridiculous is that the US military expenditure is nearly four times higher than that of China. Then, who poses a threat to whom? From a geographical point of view, the US is surrounded by two oceans from the east to the west and has no competitors from the north to the south. Therefore, the US should be the most secure country. However, the US has fallen into "persecutory delusion" and cannot extricate itself.

对习惯了“没有敌人也要制造敌人”的美国来说，“中国军事威胁”自然成了其增加军费开支的绝佳借口。可笑的是，美国军费的开支是中国的近4倍，不妨要问，究竟是谁对谁构成了威胁？从地理位置来看，美国东西被两大洋包夹，南北没有竞争对手，理应是最有安全感的国家。但美国陷入“被迫害妄想症”里不可自拔。

For the US, the greatest interest is to maintain its global hegemony and they can do whatever it takes for this so-called great goal. "Militancy" is written in the DNA of the US. According to statistics, since World War II, the US has initiated approximately 80 percent of the world's armed conflicts. Under the gangster logic of "either taking orders from the US or being destroyed by the US," the US is fanning the flames and causing trouble everywhere. Whether it is Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan, wherever there is the US' war machine, there is destruction and devastation. In the past two years, the US has fueled the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In the US defense budget for fiscal year 2024, it set aside USD 800 million to assist Ukraine, continuing its usual behavior of adding fuel to the flame. Facts have proven that the US is the fundamental source of chaos in the international order, the manipulator behind the scenes of world turmoil, and the biggest destroyer of regional peace and stability.

对于美国而言，最大的利益就是维持自己的全球霸权。为了这个所谓的“伟大”目标，他们可以不择手段。“穷兵黩武”写在美国的基因中。据统计，二战以来，世界上发生的武装冲突中，由美国发起的占比约80%。在“要么听命于美国，要么被美国搞乱”的强盗逻辑下，美国到处煽风点火，兴风作浪。无论是南联盟、利比亚、叙利亚，还是伊拉克、阿富汗，凡是美国战争机器所到之地，无不狼烟四起、满目疮痍。这两年，乌克兰危机、巴以冲突，背后也少不了美国推波助澜的身影。就在2024财年美国国防预算中，美国还预留了8亿美元用于援助乌克兰，继续其一贯拱火浇油行径。事实证明，美国才是国际秩序的“根本性乱源”，世界动荡的“幕后操盘手”，地区和平稳定的“最大破坏者”。

The US should understand that in today's world, no country can base its own absolute security on the absolute insecurity of other countries. As a Chinese saying goes, "Although the country is very powerful, if it is warlike, it will perish." If the US still insists on creating imaginary enemies, ignores the legitimate security concerns of other countries, and goes further down the road of seeking, maintaining, and abusing hegemony, it will eventually bring down itself.

美国应该明白这样一个道理，当今世界，没有任何一个国家能够将自身的绝对安全，建立在其他国家的绝对不安全之上。中国有句古语，“故国虽大，好战必亡”。如果美国仍坚持制造假想敌、无视他国正当安全关切、在谋求霸权、维护霸权、滥用霸权的道路上越走越远，最终被拖垮的将是美国自身。