By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 30, 2026

Wednesday morning I was speaking by Zoom to a college class about war and peace, and one of the students asked about the risk of the U.S. demilitarizing and other nations not. I gave a standard answer about how a reverse arms race could be done in stages. The U.S. could commit to not spending more than three times any other nation on its military and proceed downward from there. Of the couple of dozen nations that spend much of anything on their militaries, all but three are U.S. allies and weapons customers being hammered hard by the U.S. government (and NATO) to spend more. The only country spending more than a tiny fraction of the U.S. — in fact, spending close to a third of U.S. military spending as it’s usually reported or a sixth of what it really is — is China. If the U.S. were to keep its nukes out of South Korea and Japan, and its troops out of South Korea, and finally end the war and turn South Korea’s military over to South Korea, and start joining treaties and courts and beginning a general disarmament, North Korea would almost certainly join in serious negotiations about getting rid of its nukes, while China would — I guaranteed to this college class — not keep increasing its own military spending.

Within a minute of saying goodbye on Zoom, I saw that Trump had offered to sell weapons to China. This is terrific news. I have no idea whether Trump knows that a lot of people still want to hear some excuse for dumping virtually all of our money into the biggest war machine ever — much less for handing the decisions about the wars over to the actual weapons. I have no idea whether he’s noticed that every conversation in Congress and corporate media quickly becomes a competition about competing with China. I do know that he wants decisions to be simply about the Will of Donald Trump. So, he may not care about China as the big excuse for military spending, but I certainly care about the wonderful news that he’s taken that excuse away.

Surely we do not need trillions more dumped into the Pentagon because of China while Trump is trying to sell China weapons. Surely the rest of the world’s governments that Trump is badgering to spend more on weapons do not need to do so because of China while Trump is trying to sell China weapons. Surely Australia, for example, does not need to be filled up with U.S. troops because of China while Trump is pitching China on his favorite weapons.

So, phone the neighbors, wake the kids, and pinch the lazy new panda bears because a peace dividend is surely on the way if enough people find out that Trump has tried to sell China weapons and think about it for a few seconds and do something about it for a few days. That last bit is the sticking point I know. But let’s try!

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