The Pentagon this week announced that it plans to spend $3.4 billion in Europe next year, up from $789 million in the current budget. While several countries in the region expressed support, some firmly oppose the increased US military presence.
Daniel McAdams, of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Security, told Radio Sputnik's "Loud & Clear" that the Obama administration is using a "non-existent" threat from Russia as a pretext to increase defense spending.
"The US has been hyping up this new threat from Russia ever since it fomented the coup in Ukraine. I mean, you couldn't ask for a better excuse for the US to amp up its military spending," he said.
McAdams called Europe a "relatively wealthy continent" that can "certainly rely on itself for its defense needs."
"If you look at the US, where you have people without health care, you have Obamacare costs rising, you have crumbling infrastructure – yet Americans now are being forced to pay to take care of relatively wealthy Europeans from a non-existent Russian threat."
McAdams labeled US military spending as "welfare for the rich," saying it "has nothing to do defending or protecting the United States."
— Alan Watson (@DietHeartNews) February 2, 2016
"It's all about keeping the think tanks, the defense contractors, and everyone around the beltway extremely wealthy and powerful, and popping a flag in the hand of the rest of the country and telling them the lie that all this money that's being stolen from them is to keep them safe." he said.
"Well they're not any safer; they're far less safe."
