by Michael Thompson, Contributing Writer


The Fourth of July holiday was the United States' 236th birthday, and the nation has been at war for 193 of those years.

Some of these conflicts can be described as "necessary wars," such as World War II. Still, beyond the lives lost, consider how all the money spent on the military -- or at least a share of it -- could instead have been invested in combating poverty.

Simply in the 2013 federal budget, according to the War Resisters League, $839 billion is for current military and $516 billion is for "past military," which includes interest on the debt and veteranss benefits. Combined, this is 47 percent of the budget. This is more than all of the social aid and entitlement programs, ranging from the "biggies" (Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid) to those that take a comparative pittance (food stamps, school lunches).

Here's a war history list, as compiled by the Mid-Michigan Home for Peace and Justice:

* Revolutionary War, 1775-1783.
* Indian American wars, 1775-1890.
* War of 1812 (through 1814).
* Mexican American War, 1836-1848
* Civil War, 1861-1865.
* Spanish American War, 1897-98.
* World War I, 1914-1918.
* World War II, 1941-1945.
* Cold War, 1945-1992 (Readers may object to this inclusion, since Soviet and U.S. forces never met on a battlefield, but consider the $$$ costs.)
* Vietnam War, 1962-1973.
* Grenada invastion, 1983
* Panama invasion, 1989.
Gulf War, 1991-1992.
* Somalia, 1992-1995.
* Kosovo, 1998-1991.
* Afghanistan War, 2001-present.
* Iraq War, 2003-2011.

SOURCE:

warresisters.org

by Michael Thompson, Contributing Writer

As we strive for action plans to combat global poverty, I have always found myself in lament of a special wish. I wish “million” did not rhyme with “billion” which rhymes with “trillion.” They sound so much alike, but they are such different numbers. A billion dollars is 1 million dollars, repeated 1,000 times. A billionaire is somebody, or some entity like our government, who therefore owns the resources of 1,000 millionaires. A trillion is 1 million dollars, 1 million times. And to think of how we shop with cents-off coupons, while we sort of idolize the ignorant excesses of our celebrities, the so-called rich and famous...

To me, our resources are so totally wrongly directed. I want to go batty each time I visit the web site costofwar.com. I invite you to go look, the site will show you the costs of the Middle East war campaigns in our new millennium.The tragedy is all spelled out.

The United States Congress has NOW authorized $47 billion to continue the warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, I have supported President Obama and maybe he knows something I don’t know, but there are 70 Democrats within the past year who have changed their minds. I probably should not even be citing dollar amounts, considering the overriding question of carnage, with so much killing and so many amputees and crippled children.. I believe President Obama may be making a measured judgment in perceiving that this horrible carnage is a necessary evil in preventing the more horrendous carnage that terrorists would inflict. He seems to be a good man, not just a good man but an outstanding leader who wants to serve for the common good. But when I think of the horror of warfare and violence, and when I take note that the United Nations estimates that a $30 billion annual investment could resolve global hunger, I have to give pause. Hunger truly is a form of violence, and to address global poverty we must address hunger first.

I only wish President Kennedy a half century ago would have decided that we don’t need to go to the moon, that we need to deal with global poverty and alternative energy, and the we needed to get out of Viet Nam.

SOURCE

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_would_it_cost_to_solve_world_hunger