The Cost of War vs Feeding the World's Starving

A recent  report by students at a Berlin university noted between 1947 and 2006  over 170 wars have been fought, many are still ongoing. Millions of innocent civilians die of hunger, thirst and disease, fleeing these wars while the world looks on. The worst drought in 60 years has caused the world's most severe food crisis in East Africa with 3.5 million in Kenya, 2.85 million in Somalia and 3.2 million in Ethiopia in need of urgent humanitarian assistance (UN website). Why did it take so long for the UN to declare a major disaster exists when it appears hundreds of thousands had already died? Why are trillions of dollars spent on the Afghanistan war alone while over 25,000 children throughout the world die in poverty each day.

The UN estimates just 40 – 60 billion dollars a year would halve world poverty and yet we spend so much on weapons of mass destruction. “The Cost of War Calculator” (http://www.stwr.org/special-features/cost-of-war-calculator.html ) is a great website which lists what could be spent supporting the billions of people around the world living in poverty as opposed to the billions of dollars made by first world countries and major private arms manufacturers in weapons of war - mass destruction.

 

• Just one cluster bomb for example which kills and maims hundreds of people costs $8,660 – enough to produce 10 clean water wells, or remove 9 landmines from the ground, or 309 Chickens (eggs mean protein - vital for every diet. Three chickens can produce enough eggs to feed a whole family. They'll produce baby chicks too).
• The Cost of a Single MH-47 Chinook Helicopter is $67,000,000! This could provide 19,142,857 blankets for refugees as in emergencies, families often leave home with only the clothes they are wearing. Or it could provide 7,165,775 mosquito nets with two million people dying every year from malaria, most are children under five.
• The Cost of a single F16 Fighter plane is $80,000,000! This could provide 21,616 schools furnished with desks, chairs, tables, blackboards - vital things children need to build a foundation for learning. Or 4,280,364 children supplied with school books for a whole year.
• The Cost of a Single Uzi Sub-machine Gun Is $1,700. This could provide 152 Water Filters. Poor families in places like Cambodia, have no choice but to drink water full of bacteria and parasites. Water filters saves lives by screening out small but deadly bugs. Or 26 bicycles for a child to get to school every day.

Read what other weapons/planes etc could provide. A B-2 Stealth Bomber for example costs 1 billion dollars. See what 1 billion dollars could provide the poor on the "Cost of War" Website

http://www.stwr.org/special-features/cost-of-war-calculator.html