Global day of action against military spending

Last year, the world spent a staggering $4.38 billion dollars every day on war and preparations for war.

According to a new report released today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), world military expenditures grew to a record $1,600 billion in 2010.

The United States was responsible for the lion’s share of spending.  The Pentagon budget is currently $693 billion, accounting for more than all other US discretionary spending combined.  The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone cost more than $300,000 every minute.

“The US has increased its military spending by 81 per cent since 2001, and now accounts for 43 per cent of the global total, six times its nearest rival China,” stated Dr. Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of the SIPRI Military Expenditure Project.

The figures stand in sharp contrast to spending on efforts to create a more peaceful and healthy planet.

Some 1.7 billion people live on the edge of subsistence without the basic necessities of life.  Yet two tenths of world military spending is all that is needed to achieve the UN Millennium Goals, including ending poverty and ensuring that everyone has access to clean water, food, clothing, shelter, healthcare and education.

Today, on this Global Day of Action Against Military Spending, IPPNW joins hundreds of other groups, and millions of people around the globe, in calling for a re-ordering of priorities away from armament and war.  It is time instead to focus attention and resources on unmet human needs.

What would you do with $1,600,000,000,000 dollars?  Click here to consider the possibilities.