So an updated study now claims Cuba and China are more peaceful than the United States.

The so-called “global peace index” ranks countries according to variables such as social unrest, levels of crime, and military spending. However, the study’s authors are trusting communist governments to give them accurate information when it is obvious that they underreport and falsify data.

Try getting accurate numbers from the Chinese government for the Tiananmen Square massacre. They even used obviously underage gymnasts during the Olympics; at least one of whom  lost her medal after an investigation.

The index also does not include many other factors that can heavily modify their conclusions, such as the condition of women in Muslim countries and human rights in general. This study also neglects the lives saved because of a military action, such as removing a dictator or the Taliban from power. The index also doesn’t consider that America has to be the police for much of the world. Countries such as Norway and Denmark can neglect their national defense, and thus spend lavishly on social welfare. I also doubt that China loses any points for aiding governments like Iran or North Korea.

Less military spending does not necessarily equate to more peace. Drastic cuts are usually taken as signs of weakness (not to mention having an indecisive and foolish president) and your enemies become emboldened.

They must have a very bizarre definition of ‘peace’ if they rank dictatorial and communist countries above a democracy. Peace involves more than simply the absence of violence. I suppose if everyone were living in a highly oppressed society, then a sort of ‘peace’ might develop - of the nightmarishly Orwellian kind.