Obama 155

Give Peace Spending a Chance

Tuesday 09 February 2010

by: Maya Schenwar, Executive Director, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Photos8.com, mtsofan)

Last week, when President Obama requested the largest-ever military budget since World War II, hardly anyone batted an eyelash. The Bush years immunized many of us to the shock of colossal defense spending bills skating across the table - and zipping through Congress to sure passage - regardless of shriveling public approval.

Perhaps, more eyelashes would have started batting if Americans realized that this year the US will spend more on its occupation of Afghanistan alone than any other country except China spends on its entire defense budget.

There's no question that war spending for Iraq and Afghanistan will top $1 trillion after Obama's request is implemented. That's enough money to stretch - in dollar bills - from the earth to the sun. It's also enough to pay for ten years of universal primary education for all of the world's children, according to UN statistics.

It costs $1 million to keep one soldier in Afghanistan for a year. The same amount of money could build 30 or 40 girls' schools in Afghanistan - one surefire way to reduce the number of men joining the Taliban over the long term.

This simple numbers game begs a painful question: as we fling ever more money toward war and occupation, where's the funding for peace?

The answer: it's there, but you'll miss it if you blink. US defense spending has long been notoriously imbalanced between military and nonmilitary priorities, and Obama's 2011 budget is no exception. In fact, it's even worse than usual. Military spending towers over spending on preventative measures by a ratio of 12 to 1, according to statistics from the Institute on Policy Studies. Last year, it was 11 to 1 - roughly the same as the ratio under Bush.

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/give-peace-spending-a-chance56773