Peter, You can do sums, but sums are not always the whole story. Most of that money is spent keeping the peace, not making war. I may not have occurred to you, but I'll bet that Singapore's safety and security is much more dependent on the US military presence in the far east than on Singapore's military. And we do all that on 3.9% of our GDP vs. Singapore's expenditures of 4.9% of GDP. (CIA world fact book-2003.)
Frankly, 4% of GDP is a small price to pay for our own defense, much less, much of the rest of the world. Personally, I wish a higher percentage was spent on defense and less on social programs. BTW, before you ask, the per taxpayer amount you mentioned is less than 10% of my personal tax bill. Jeff
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