How to spend 3 trillion dollars on war in under 3 minutes
If the mass slaughter won't deter Barack Obama from escalating the war in Afghanistan, will the scale of the financial cost give him pause for thought?
Video by: Matt Owens , MacKenzie Fegan, Andrew Bouvé, Michael Schaubach, Rus Garofalo, Lindsay Utz, Morgan Currie, Jason Bishop. Music by: Audio Dregs Recordings
28 November 2009
This is the current audit of death in Iraq and Afghanistan:
Iraq War:
1 million civilians killed
4366 US soldiers killed
179 British soldiers killed
Afghanistan War:
Tens of 1000s civilians killed
928 US soliers killed
235 British soldier killed
If this won't deter Barack Obama from escalating the war in Afghanistan, will the scale of the financial cost give him pause for thought?
In under three minutes this film shows how the cost of the Bush/Obama wars is heading for 3 trillion dollars.
To put this in perspective:
Much of Afghanistan's population lives on around $1 dollar a day.
Average monthly earnings for adults are around $30. Life expectancy in Afghanistan is 46 years. A working life is around 30 years, so lifetime earnings are in total $10,800.
Three trillion dollars divided among the people of Afghanistan (population 28 million) and Iraq (population 31 million) would give every man, woman and child 51,000 dollars.
In other words, it would raise the standard of living five-fold for every Afghan.
Escalating a war that is pointless and unwinnable? Or helping lift out of poverty everyone living in Afghanistan -- the world's second poorest country? Which would really be "change we can believe in"?
See also:
War at any price?: the total economic costs of the war
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