Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The Logic of Power

Ok last burst of frustration then I'll try and lighten up the blog for a while.

Tomorrow marks the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. George Bush said today that they had achieved:
"a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror".
Agreed?

700,000 killed and 4 million refugees..... and here is the financial cost... keep reading......

It is estimated that the overall cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is somewhere between $5 trillion and $7 trillion for the US alone and another $6 trillion for other countries.

Officially, the US spends $16 billion every month to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan (this figure includes only direct expenses).

The United Nations estimates that $195 billion would end world hunger and most of the devastating diseases afflicting the world’s poor. AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, extreme poverty could all be brought into manageable numbers or completely eradicated for less than the cost of one year of war in Iraq!!!

The world is so screwed up.

(btw this is a criticism of War, not of America which has produced many good things and great people like Eilis!)

8 comments:

roast honey said...

If you are interested politically in the politics behind the Iraq invasion and current US strategies on it or just in commentaries on it-check out the film Lions for Lambs directed by Robert Redford and let me know what you think.

Ellen Wright said...

and theres's me thinking you were going to blog about jack penate and his spitting antics!

AILÍN said...

John

One of the sadest things I discovered when working on my own family history was that of my Gt Uncle Harry Kerr

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem/Detail&casualty=196098

As a young man he left these shores to avail of better opportunities across the Atlantic, arriving in Canada. He arrived there not long before the start of WW1. He enlisted (not conscripted), I try to understand this loyalty as naivety from a bygone era. But still today in our age of 24 hr news and mass information young men and women still feel they have a sense of duty to enlist to fight political wars.
The cost of the war is no doubt as you describe, but Bush couldn't succeed if he hadn't people prepared to die for a cause....Why?

Anonymous said...

Yes the world is screwed up and these figures are shocking beyond belief...

Just to bring a little bit of hope into all this -- today I read the following in a DFID publication:

- 75 million more children are in primary school today than in 1990.

- Over 8 times more poeple are receiving treatment for AIDS now than in 2003.

I was amazed at those figures.

Nina

J-Mac said...

Amazing indeed Nina. Proves that all the campaigning in recent years has been worth while!

rickwillpreston said...

bro...just lettin u find me!

AILÍN said...

thought this might interest you.

http://www.nipsa.org.uk/uploads/news/Web%20edition%20MARCH%20NIPSA%20NEWS.pdf

Anonymous said...

Alan, some interesting points about privatisation. However, NI per head of population, is second only to Cuba in the Number of people we employ in the civil service...they are communist country, as i am sure you know. Whats that about?