So is the US an “aggressive, war-mongering military machine” obsessed with spending on defence and plumping up its armed forces? Perhaps, the numbers say, not.
But you have to follow the charts quite a way down to see why. Compare this presentation with the one-line statistics in our newspapers – makes you groan.
Other highlights. The North Koreans have 24,728 people per 100,000 in what might be called the aggression business – soldiers, reservists and paramilitary. A 2008 census gave a total population of about 24 million of whom about half are children. It follows that about half the adult population are in the aggression business.
Then there’s Burma, which spends 26% of its GDP on the military.