"United States armed forces are today among the most powerful armies in the world. Currently only the active personnel of land forces of United States Army exceeds 519 000 soldiers. added on top of that should be the hundreds of thousands of people who form the National Guard, Army Reserve, State Defense Forces, and United States Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. The fact that the American expenditure on Armed Forces reaches approximately 3% of the GDP makes US armed forces have at their disposal state-of-the-art weapons and equipment, which lets them fulfill their mission in different parts of the world. Voices may sometimes be heard that the USA should not co-operate with the United Nations in the framework of peace missions, as “UN forces conducting peacekeeping missions neither are nor will in the nearest future be a factor increasing the military value of the American army”."(...)