Military budget

And, you know, we also hear that Turkey is really getting this very powerful position in the region.

It's Tripolin's defense budget, which I really want to talk about later.

So I think all of this makes Turkey and Syria as well a really fascinating place to look at right now.

So I suggest we start with the big picture.

and the American pressure on Israel to maintain that there is no direct military escalation.

But if that doesn't succeed, with Netanyahu, unfortunately, there's a real risk of military direct hostilities between Turkey and Israel.

I also want to ask you about Turkey's growing defense budget.

I have the number here.

Retired Major General John Howard.

He's argued in the Herald that New Zealand... can no longer treat defence spending as something that can be cut whenever the government needs to find savings.

He says decades of underinvestment after the Cold War hollowed out the defence force, as we know, and while he supports the government's $12 billion defence capability plan and its target of spending more than 2% of GDP, By the early 2030s, he says that investment needs to continue through to 2040 and survive changes of government.

His argument is that a credible military is, of course, about being able to fight, but it also gives New Zealand more weight in diplomacy, intelligence, relationships, trade and economic security as well.

Very good afternoon to you.

It is 14 past one.

So Major General John Howard retired has argued in the Herald that New Zealand can no longer treat defence spending as something that can be cut whenever the government needs to find savings.

And on the line right now is John Howard to discuss further.

Sure.

'Cause these other countries are spending, you know, 2 to 3, 4% on GDP on military spending.

Sure.

So, so i- i- it...

So it's still three and a half times what that was.

Where is the money going? And why is our government so dependent upon military spending? in order to prop up our economy, because without that, we don't have an economy.

And if anything, the military industrial complex within the U.S. should utterly collapse because Iran has demonstrated to the world in public that we are not just a paper tiger, but a toothless paper tiger when it comes to the ability to exert military force globally.

because we are so vulnerable to other things because they stuck with the wrong platform too long.

Well, let's put it like this.

I'm more sanguine about that daft introduction of yours than I would be if we were told we needed to spend another 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 percent, double our... or double our defense spending, because that's what the military want.

Of course, that's what the military wants.

It's what the military always wants.

September 1st, this is another Russian finance minister says a wartime economy will destroy the country.

The Russian economy is already operating under enormous pressure from military spending, turning it into full scale wartime economy, according to former finance minister Zelensky.

Zad Dornow is an extremely dangerous idea.

A full-scale wartime economy requires new institutions, rules, legislation, and mechanisms of coercion.

And so they're protecting their own farmers from Russians.

OK, September 5th, again, another sign that Putin is dragging Russia into something that's going to be going to make the 1990s look like a Sunday tea party hosted by Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews and Captain Kangaroo.

Russian military spending as a percentage of GDP hit its highest level since 1989.

And back then, no one was bombing oil refineries or blockading Azov and Black Sea.