¨One Day of the Iraq War = 720 Million Dollars, How Would You Spend it?

One Day of the Iraq War = 84 New Elementary Schools

One Day of the Iraq War = 12,478 Elementary School Teachers

One Day of the Iraq War = 95,364 Head Start Places for Children

One Day of the Iraq War = 1,153,846 Children with Free School Lunches

One Day of the Iraq War = 34,904 Four-Year Scholarships for University Students

One Day of the Iraq War = 163,525 People with Health Care

One Day of the Iraq War = 423,529 Children with Health Care

One Day of the Iraq War = 6,482 Families with Homes

One Day of the Iraq War = 1,274,336 Homes with Renewable Energy¨

• ¨The cost of direct US military operations - not even including long-term costs such as taking care of wounded veterans - already exceeds the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and is more than double the cost of the Korean War. And, even in the best case scenario, these costs are projected to be almost ten times the cost of the first Gulf War, almost a third more than the cost of the Vietnam War, and twice that of the First World War. The only war in our history which cost more was the Second World War, when 16.3 million U.S. troops fought in a campaign lasting four years, at a total cost (in 2007 dollars, after adjusting for inflation) of about $5 trillion (that's $5 million million, or £2.5 million million). With virtually the entire armed forces committed to fighting the Germans and Japanese, the cost per troop (in today's dollars) was less than $100,000 in 2007 dollars. By contrast, the Iraq war is costing upward of $400,000 per troop.¨  -The Times

• ¨The war in iraq, which will enter its sixth year this week, is turning out to be the most expensive conflict since World War II. By the end of 2008, the federal government will have spent more than $800 billion on combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. On top of that comes a mountain of future costs: caring for war veterans (to date, more than 1.6 million troops have been deployed), replacing the military hardware that is being used and worn out in Iraq and paying interest on the enormous sums of money we've borrowed to finance the war. All told, we estimate that the cost of the war will easily reach $3 trillion in today's money.¨  -L.A. Times

• Even 20 years ago in 1987, ¨The combined military expenditure of all the worlds governments were so large that all of the Social Programs of The Unitied Nations could have been funded for 300 years!!¨ -Michael Tsarion.

• Furthermore there is the ¨Opportunity Cost of conflict: that is the economic benefits that could have been accrued had there not been conflicts in these countries or regions. According to the reports, countries in the Middle East that are directly involved in or affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, internal strife in Lebanon and the US invasion of Iraq have lost a whopping $12 trillion dollars (in 2006 dollar value) in opportunity costs from 1991 to 2010. In the case of Sri Lanka, SFG stated that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) remained stagnant during periods of civil war and that net FDI increased during periods of ceasefire. In 2004, Strategic Foresight Group stated that India and Pakistan could achieve growth rates of 10% and 7% respectively, provided there is no major conflict, no global recession and effective resource and political management in the future. ¨    -wikipedia

¨A report conducted by 3 international organizations in 2007 highlighted the heavy cost to development in Africa, due to ensuing conflicts in various countries. The report conducted by Oxfam International, the International Action Network on Small Armsand Saferworld stated that 23 African countries were involved in one form of conflict or another between 1990 and 2005.

During these 15 years the cost of conflict in Africa was equivalent to the funds granted by the continent in international aid over the same period – both conflicts and aid from 1990-2005 amounted to $284 billion. In other words, the money lost in conflict could have been used in more effective ways, such as addressing the needs of education, clean water and sanitation and the prevention of harmful disease in African countries.

Other facts included in the report: On average, armed conflict shrinks an African nation's economy by 15 per cent. Conflicts are costing African economies an average of $18bn a year. Conflicts in countries like Burundi and Rwanda have cost their governments an annual economic loss of 37% and 32% of their GDP respectively.¨     -wikipedia

• ¨Money spent on advertising has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2007, spending on advertising has been estimated at over $150 billion in the United States and $385 billion worldwide, and the latter to exceed $450 billion by 2010¨.  -wikipedia

¨The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. The annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is known as the most prominent advertising event on television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has reached $3 million (as of 2009).¨  -wikipedia

¨Average American children see around 3000 advertisements a day on TV, the Internet, billboards, and in magazines and over the course of a year they view 40,000 television commercials alone. Industry spends an estimated $12 billion on advertising to children each year.¨ -wikipedia

• Despite the evolving media technologies, our discernment and humanity are perhaps not evolving as fast and unless we wake up to the facts as they stand now we could enter a civil crisis of global proportions before we realise what is happening. The only effective way to prevent this is to transform the source of conflict and this can only be done by understanding the source and re-educating ourselves. It is apparant that very few people understand this or even see the problem clearly and even less understand what to do to transform the issue.