Whatever your view about the ethics of the war on Iraq, compare these figures, I'm not sure whether I find it more shocking or saddening.

11 Blankets for refugees - $100 - 1 hand grenade

3-day training for 160 youth in peace building - $4,000 - 1 rocket launcher

Enroll 2 children in Head Start - $14,000 - 1 cluster bomb

2 home health aides for disabled elderly - $40,000 - 1 Hellfire missile

Associate Degree training for 29 RNs - $145,600 - 1 Bunker-buster guided bomb

Rent subsidies for 1,000 families - $586,000 - 1,000 M-16 Rifles

Annual salary/benefits for 15 RNs - $763,000 - 1 minute war on Iraq

Improve, repair, modernize 20 schools - $46 million - 1 hour war on Iraq

WIG program nutrition for 200,000 families - $130 million - 7 unmanned Predator drones

Eradicate polio worldwide - $275 million - 3 tests of missile defence system

Best vaccinations for 10 million children worldwide - $350 million - 6 Trident II missiles

Childcare for 68,000 needy children - $413 million - Amphibious Warfare Landing ShipProg

7,000 units of affordable housing - $494 million - 1 year military aid to Colombia

Prevent cuts to education programs (FY2003) - $1.1 billion - 1 day of war on Iraq

Minimum support to save Amtrak train service - $1.2 billion - 2 months US war force in Afghanistan

Annual salary/benefits for 38,000 elementary teachers - $2,1 billion - 1 Stealth bomber

Double federal funding for mass transit - $12 billion - 1 year cost of war in Afghanistan

Healthcare coverage for 7 million children - $16 billion - 1 year nuclear weapons program

Save 11million lives worldwide fighting infectious diseases - $38 billion - 1 month US current military spending


Personally I think that there are some serious sums of money being sorely misspent, what do you think?

But if the money is moved onto the left list - what about the poor families of the people who actually make the stuff onthe right? Will anyone start granting subsidies to prevent mass starvation for out of work Stealth Fighter mechanics?


On a serious note - the world is basically fucked when things like this are allowed to happen - granted it's unlikely that some of the stuff listed will ever be gotten rid of - as there are still too many people who would happily blow your head off just because you don't agree with their way of thinking.

So - who is going to make the first move and tackle the two things that humanity as a whole need changing in order to be rid of stuff on the right hand side of the list? Especially when there isn't a buck/dollar/sheckle or whatever in it for them in the short term?

Who or what can tackle the human condition - apathy and ignorance.



I would, but I don't care anymore - and I haven't the brains to work it out.

I am so freaking sick of everyone bashing the US (and allies) for liberating a country who was ruled by a leader who has committed genocide (among other things) against it own people. My 15 year old daughter has to listen to this bullshit brainwashing in the very expesive private school that I send her to. I'm so scik of it.

Bugeeboy raeding yours posts on other threads I have much respect for many things that you say, but leave out a lot too.
Why didn't you include in your post the law that Geoge Bush signed on May 27 allcating $15 billion in American taxpayer money in the HIV/AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria Act ? This money goes directly towards fighting AIDS in 14 countries, 12 in Africa and 2 in the Caribbean. How about the United Statesarecent plan dated 11/7/03 to help the more that 500,000 women worldwide that die in childbirth? How the US grant on 10/23/03 of more than $16 million to help save the lives of children in Hati? I could go on and on. There are time when America does really suck. But we do plenty of good in the world too.

Ok, there are 2 points here. The first is about the reasons for the war on Iraq, I agree that Hussein was a leader of great evil, but surely everyone could see that this war would not be as easy as Bush and Blair said, and that it would still be going on now. Make no mistake, although we claim that Iraq is liberated, the war is still very much in progress, with death to both coalition forces and Iraqi civilians on a daily basis. Personally I think it could drag on for years, is this really a huge improvement over the situation the country was in before the Allied invasion.

The invasion of Iraq was also based on a lie, the cited reason was because of the immediate threat posed by weapons of mass destruction. It seems faitly evident now that there was no such immediate threat. If you want to go and liberate a country then fine, but don't lie to your electorate about the reasons for it.

In addition to this it is worth noting the fact that none of the countries who are now so keen on liberating Iraq seemed to give a shit about the genocide that it's leader was commiting all through the 80's when they were happily selling him weapons.

The second point is about how money should be spent.

I never said that the US never gives any money to supporting good causes worldwide. They do, but their spending on defense still seems misaligned.

It is a statistical fact that the USA has about the lowest rate of government assistance to other countries in the world by percentage of GDP.
America can appear to be giving a lot compared to others, due to it's sheer size and population, but in real terms gives much less than many smaller nations.

At the same time, the US government spends almost as much on weapons as the rest of the world combined. Whilst I agree that every country needs to defend and deter, this budget does seem hugely inflated.

Bunggeeboy,
I pretty much agree with everything that you said, especically point 1, I am an Liberterain I have no loyalty to either of the to major politcal parties in my courntry. I thnk that Bush (and the entire Republican party) used the excuse of weapons of mass destruction as way to take our minds off of the failing economy (which he was unfailrly being blame for).

On point 2: I'm not sure where you obtained that information(and I am too tired to research it) so I am not ready to agree with that point. If it is true the reason that we have a higher GDP is because America is less socialist than a lot of Old Europe.

On side note my 15 year old daughter Cory, had a "retreat" in her high school. They took away one of her shoes (made her wear a flip flop on her left foot all day- fucking stupid). They took away her lunch and made her eat bread and water for lunch. They basically told Amerca sucks because there are poor people in the world and we are rich(I'm not rich because every extra penny I have goes to pay for that stupid school). Which is kind of what I got out of you initial post. I think I was wrong about that.

I just want to add one more thing to paragraph 2 of my last post. Then I have to get on with my real life (I am entirely too sucked into the dogbomb vortex). Because America is less socialist than Old Europe, Amercians have more money in their pockects. Therefore we don't have to rely on our government to contribute to the humanitarian causes all over the globe we can do it on our own. I am guessing that Americans on their own comprise a high percentage of the voluntary contributions to world charities.

Yep, this is true, as individuals Americans have the highest level of contributions to charity, both domestic and international (although mostly domestic) of any nation in the world.

I think you did get the wrong impression from my initial post, I am not of the belief that because others having nothing the accumulation of individual wealth is wrong. I just think that if you look at the amount of money that is needed to correct some fundamental wrongs in the world, and then look at the amount that the is spent on defense, then there is something a bit wrong.

:)

Bungeeboy spouted:
Yep, this is true, as individuals Americans have the highest level of contributions to charity, both domestic and international (although mostly domestic) of any nation in the world.

I think you did get the wrong impression from my initial post, I am not of the belief that because others having nothing the accumulation of individual wealth is wrong. I just think that if you look at the amount of money that is needed to correct some fundamental wrongs in the world, and then look at the amount that the is spent on defense, then there is something a bit wrong.

:)

Then we are in total agreement! 8)

Its americas money, not the refugees, harsh but fair.

if you'd read further than the first line, murphy, you'd see that almost all of the things listed are for spending within america.

whoops....

wildmurphy spouted:
Its americas money, not the refugees, harsh but fair.

If America is prepared to invest money in creating problems worldwide, then surely it should be prepared to invest some in solving them.