This is an interesting and, for me, somewhat eye-opening graph. I was pleased to see that the forces deployed in Europe do in fact seem to be declining (albeit very slowly now), and was surprised that the total number in 2011 is actually lower than in the 1980s.
Those of you who did not live through (or at least remember) the late 1960s may get a sense from the spike in this graph of the reasons for such widespread angst among America's youth at the time - a time when the involuntary draft was in full force (the elimination of which was a brilliant maneuver by those wishing to decrease resistance to American militarism).
From The Economist, via The Dish.
That may be due to the fact that a lot more jobs are done by the mercenaries. Blackwater, Halliburton, whatnot. They don't count as US troops. They are independent contractors and get paid several times more for the same work that the troops would otherwise do.
ReplyDeleteAny chance you could do this graph again and include military contractors?
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