US & British aid is dwarfed by the billions both spend on

The victims of the tsunami pay the price of war on Iraq

US and British aid is dwarfed by the billions both spend on slaughter

By George Monbiot 01/04/05 " The Guardian "

Over the past few months, reviewing the complete lack of public
interest in what is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
and the failure, in the west, to mobilise effective protests against
the continuing atrocities in Iraq, I had begun to wonder whether we
had lost our ability to stand in other people's shoes. I have now
stopped wondering.

[...]

But one obvious question recurs. Why must the relief of suffering, in
this unprecedentedly prosperous world, rely on the whims of citizens
and the appeals of pop stars and comedians? Why, when extreme poverty
could be made history with a minor redeployment of public finances,
must the poor world still wait for homeless people in the rich world
to empty their pockets?

The obvious answer is that governments have other priorities. And the
one that leaps to mind is war. If the money they have promised to the
victims of the tsunami still falls far short of the amounts required,
it is partly because the contingency fund upon which they draw in
times of crisis has been spent on blowing people to bits in Iraq.

The US government has so far pledged $350m to the victims of the
tsunami, and the UK government £50m ($96m). The US has spent $148
billion on the Iraq war and the UK £6bn ($11.5bn). The war has been
running for 656 days. This means that the money pledged for the
tsunami disaster by the United States is the equivalent of one and a
half day's spending in Iraq. The money the UK has given equates to
five and a half days of our involvement in the war.

[full story at]
http://207.44.245.159/article7617.htm

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Congress expects $100 billion war request:

Congress expects the White House to request as much as $100 billion
this year for war and related costs in Iraq and Afghanistan,
congressional officials say.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-01-03-iraq-costs_x.htm?POE=click-refer

http://snipurl.com/brsu

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