Eisenhower was right, every missile fired is a theft from those in need

With so many nations struggling to provide electricity and clean water, and to rebuild healthcare and education, it’s a travesty that billions of dollars are being diverted to arms production and defence

David Dodwell

Published: 5:30am, 20 Apr 2024

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As I watched the dramatic footage of Iranian bombs and drones raining down on Israel, each one picked off by its Iron Dome defence system, I could not help recalling former US president Dwight Eisenhower’s 1953 speech on “The Chance for Peace”.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired [is] a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed,” he said.

“This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 [ … ] We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

“This,” he warned, “is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

In the same way, each intercepted Iranian missile, a brief flare in the night over Jerusalem, is a theft in food, clothing, housing and hospitals from millions in need.

Eisenhower could have been speaking of the more than 70,000 tonnes of explosives Israel has dropped on Gaza since last October, turning schools, hospitals, homes and power plants into rubble, burying thousands of women and children with them. Or of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or the military warlords laying much of Sudan to waste.

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As governments lurch witlessly towards broader armed conflict, communities not only lose lives and livelihoods, productive economies are also soured by a massive diversion towards defence and national security – at the expense of other urgent needs.

While this brings hardship to the broader economy, those populating the defence industrial base (not just in the military forces but defence contractors like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman in the United States, BAE Systems in Britain or Rheinmetall in Germany) have prospered.

As Raytheon head Gregory Hayes noted in an investor briefing last year, there is “lots of good news out there”, adding “it’s just a question of getting it out the door”. Unsurprisingly, the share prices of leading military suppliers have soared.

Since Russia launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine in 2022, Kyiv’s defence spending has leapt to around a third of its devastated economy. Poland, fearful for its security, is hoisting its defence budget to more than 4 per cent of its gross domestic product – double the Nato target.

It has ordered US$10 billion of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) and Hellfire missiles from Lockheed, US$15 billion of air defence systems from Raytheon and 96 Apache helicopters from Boeing, as well as Abrams tanks from General Dynamics and F-35 jets from Lockheed.

Unless Poland has discovered some miraculous mechanism to produce money out of thin air, these purchases will come from already-stretched parts of the budget – whether from education, housing, healthcare or funding the investments needed to reduce carbon emissions and stem global warming.

Add up the cost of the 200-300 Iranian drones and missiles hurled at Israel last weekend and the estimated US$50,000 price of each of the hundreds of Tamir interceptor missiles deployed to stop them, and you have a multimillion-dollar bill for one night’s activity alone.

The sad Zeitenwende heralded by the global surge in military spending

The US Congressional Research Service says the United States has contributed nearly US$3 billion to operating the Iron Dome, including its batteries, interceptors, co-production costs and general maintenance.

Eisenhower was right that every rocket fired is a theft, and a gigantic one at that. World military expenditure rocketed to an estimated record US$2.2 trillion in 2022, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and this has yet to account for the new costs arising from the Gaza conflict. The institute estimates that the European Union’s arms imports have almost doubled from between 2014-2018 and 2019-2023 as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While Israel’s military spending is not recorded, the US gave it US$3 billion in 2022 for “peace and security”, with 99 per cent going directly to the Israel Defence Forces.

Much of our attention is now focused on Ukraine and Palestinians in Gaza but these are not the world’s leading buyers of military equipment. Perhaps surprisingly, the world’s leading importer in recent years is India, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar not far behind. And by far the leading supplier is the US, which SIPRI says accounts for 42 per cent of global weapons exports.

Not only is most US military equipment battle-tested, but US exporters have benefited from the carefully nurtured narrative of a coming “China threat”. Big recent orders have come from Japan and Australia, and new business has emerged from India and Indonesia – both traditional customers of Russia.

While wars are dreadful, so too is the distraction of attention and hard-pressed funds from fundamentally much more important and pressing needs.

It is a travesty that when many governments are challenged to provide basic services like electricity and clean water, and to rebuild healthcare after the Covid-19 pandemic and badly starved education systems, billions are being diverted to arms production and defence.

Where the resources to tackle climate change and reduce record government debts will come from is hard to foresee. Where is today’s Eisenhower to end this theft?

David Dodwell is CEO of the trade policy and international relations consultancy Strategic Access, focused on developments and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific over the past four decades