THE ARAB-MUSLIM WORLD CANNOT AFFORD TO TAKE OVER AMERICA

By Doug Newman

January 5, 2007


I was recently feeling rather wonkish and decided to do some research into the economic and military might of the Arab-Muslim world as opposed to that of the United States.

I took gross domestic product and military expenditure numbers from 17 Arab nations, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the four countries with the largest Muslim populations – i.e. Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

The results were fascinating.

These 25 nations combined have 20.9 percent of America’s gross domestic product and 26.5 percent of America’s military expenditures. Some of them have military budgets that could not build a football stadium in America.

They simply cannot afford to take over America.

Country

GDP (1)

Military (2)

India

 $    691,876,000,000.00

 $ 11,520,000,000.00

Turkey

 $    301,950,000,000.00

 $   8,100,000,000.00

Indonesia

 $    257,641,000,000.00

 $   1,000,000,000.00

Saudi Arabia

 $    250,557,000,000.00

 $ 18,300,000,000.00

Iran

 $    162,709,000,000.00

 $   9,700,000,000.00

Pakistan

 $      96,115,000,000.00

 $   2,964,000,000.00

Iraq

 $      94,100,000,000.00

 $   1,300,000,000.00

Algeria

 $      84,649,000,000.00

 $   1,870,000,000.00

Egypt

 $      75,148,000,000.00

 $   4,040,000,000.00

UAE

 $      70,960,000,000.00

 $   1,600,000,000.00

Bangladesh

 $      56,844,000,000.00

 $      559,000,000.00

Morocco

 $      50,055,000,000.00

 $   1,400,000,000.00

Kuwait

 $      41,748,000,000.00

 $   1,967,000,000.00

Libya

 $      29,119,000,000.00

 $   1,300,000,000.00

Tunisia

 $      28,185,000,000.00

 $      356,000,000.00

Syria

 $      23,133,000,000.00

 $      858,000,000.00

Lebanon

 $      21,768,000,000.00

 $      541,000,000.00

Oman

 $      21,698,000,000.00

 $   2,424,000,000.00

Qatar

 $      20,426,000,000.00

 $      723,000,000.00

Sudan

 $      19,559,000,000.00

 $      581,000,000.00

Yemen

 $      12,834,000,000.00

 $      482,000,000.00

Jordan

 $      11,196,000,000.00

 $      757,000,000.00

Bahrain

 $        9,607,000,000.00

 $      526,000,000.00

Afghanistan

 $        5,761,000,000.00

 $      525,000,000.00

TOTAL:

 $ 2,437,638,000,000.00

 $ 73,393,000,000.00

USA:

$11,667,515,000,000.00

$276,700,000,000.00

Sources:

(1) http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gdp-economy-gdp-nominal

(2)   http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/mil_exp_dol_fig-military-expenditures-dollar-figure


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Freely Speaking: Essays by Doug Newman

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