[quote=pri_dk]
Look at the charts that afx114 posted. Add China and Russia together and they are still insignificant. And the two don’t exactly get along – so there would not be much synergy even if they combined their forces.[/quote]

Americans are expensive. Russians and Chinese are cheap. An average American military officer makes 10 times more than a Russian officer of comparable rank. I’m sure the numbers are comparable in China.

There’s one other developed country that is as militaristic (or even more militaristic) as the United States. It’s called Israel. It’s not on afx114’s charts because it’s too small. But Israeli per capita defense spending is roughly equal to American.