>>17
You forgot the US Emergency Supplemental Spending for FY2006; $72.4 billion, which doesn't get reported under the Defense Department's budget. So in reality, US expenditure was:
US military budget 2006 = $441 billion + $72.4 billion = $513.4 billion
US total GDP 2006 = $13 trillion
US mb/gdp = 3.94%
Venezuelan military budget 2006 = $4.2 billion
Venezuelan total GDP 2006 = $107 billion
Venezuelan mb/gdp = 3.92%
About the same.
But the real point should be whether Venezuela is a real threat to the US or its interests. They ain't a military threat by any stretch. The only threat is to 11% of our oil consumption, and working toward energy independence (which we could achieve within 3 decades) will fix that problem.