Need help verifying Israel as 4th largest military

[Bill Wade]

Can anyone give me any "credible" links or something? I'm in a debate right now using information that I've read in books but can't seem to find much of anything on the net.

I put credible in quotation marks because I'm dealing with a pro-Israel extremist.

[AirAmFan]

1. Try this table, but you seem to be off by 10 places:

http://www.cdi.org/budget/2004/world-military-spending.cfm

"FY04 Military Budget Request - U.S. & Global Military Expenditures

Selected Countries Military Budget ($Billions) Updated March 19, 2003

United States 399.1
Russia* 65.0
China* 47.0
Japan 42.6
United Kingdom 38.4

France 29.5
Germany 24.9
Saudi Arabia 21.3
Italy 19.4
India 15.6

South Korea 14.1
Brazil* 10.7
Taiwan* 10.7
Israel 10.6
Spain 8.4

Australia 7.6
Canada 7.6
Netherlands 6.6
Turkey 5.8
Mexico 5.9
...

Figures are for latest year available, usually 2002. Expenditures are used in a few cases where official budgets are significantly lower than actual spending. The figure for the United States is from the annual budget request for Fiscal Year 2004.

* 2001 Funding

Table prepared by Center for Defense Information.

Sources: International Institute for Strategic Studies, Department of Defense"