MoveOn.org
The National Priorities Project reported that the total cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq hit one trillion dollars.
That's a number so huge it's hard even to grasp—$1,000,000,000,000. A thousand billion. A million million. It's almost inconceivable.
So to put the cost of war in context, we've created a simple site where people can post all the other things we could do with a trillion dollars.
The comparisons are pretty staggering. Please check it out, and spread the word. And feel free to add your own ideas to the mix! Click here:
http://pol.moveon.org/trillion/?id=20870-331193-t8penOx&t=1
And by highlighting the immense cost of war, we can point out to lawmakers, the media, and the public just how much these wars are costing us in real, human terms.
For example, with one trillion dollars we could…
With a trillion dollars, we could provide nearly 300 million people with health care for one year.
….feed every hungry man, woman, and child in America for a year—nearly one 100 times over.
….transition the U.S. to a clean energy economy so we can solve global warming.
….pay the salaries of two million teachers for ten years.
….give $1,000 to every one of the billion children in the world living in poverty.
….provide nearly 300 million people with health care for one year.
….Or double cancer research funding, treat every American with unmanaged diabetes or heart disease, save millions of children's lives with immunizations, give New Orleans more reconstruction funds, implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations, send a peacekeeping force to Darfur, AND send every 3- and 4-year-old in the U.S. to preschool.
In other words, we could do incredible good for hundreds of millions of people—solving some of the most pressing problems in our world. But instead, we've been pouring billions and billions and billions into two quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There are innumerable reasons to withdraw from these countries responsibly and bring our troops home—the top being the human lives lost in both conflicts. But with these facts, it's clear the sheer cost also has a human impact.
Click below to check out the facts, and then pass it along on Facebook or Twitter: http://pol.moveon.org/trillion/?id=20870-331193-t8penOx&t=2
Sources:
1. National Priorities Project
http://costofwar.com/
2. According to "The Economic Cost f Domestic Hunger," by Dr. Larry Brown, an increase of $10-$12 billion a year over current spending on domestic hunger programs could end hunger in America.
3. "The Global Energy [R]evolution," Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council, 2009
http://www.energyblueprint.info/
4. According to Professor Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and currently at the University of California, Berkeley
5. Global Issues
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=88533&id=20870-331193-t8penOx&t=3
6. National Priorities Project
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/tradeoffs
7. "What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy," The New York Times, January 17, 2007
