What a Stupid War

     No, I’m not just talking about Iraq, I’m talking about war in general  --- really general. War between people, peoples, companies, ‘isms.  Bellicosity. What a word. Do we as a species love conflict?  Is that the way we succeeded with limited physical talents but brains that seem to expand?  Is male dominated fighting the ultimate crisis for us?
     Did you know that our total foreign aid budget for the year is around 17 billion dollars? 17 billion. 
     How much do we spend on Iraq? 400 billion and counting.  Some say it’s 9 billion dollars per month. Come on, this is simple; this war at the very least is not cost effective.  We are blowing up people left and right. We are destroying culture; we are encouraging peoples all over the world to hate us.
     Now, how about a different approach:  why not take some of the war spending and do health, education, and job training in the Middle East and elsewhere. 
      Just take 10% of what we have spent so far on the Iraq war. Can you imagine what that could have done or could now do?  Let’s think big, not small. Let’s go beyond conflict.
     This is not about Pollyanna, this is about common sense.  But business schools don’t teach common sense, they teach the zero sum game and profit maximization.  After all some people ( not many) make fortunes off war. War works for some people. These people have power.
     Certainly we have to be prepared to defend ourselves; it would be irresponsible to be totally pacifist. 
     Now, how about the fact that 70% of the Earth’s population lives in poverty.  There can be turn-arounds, just look at India and China. I’m not a bleeding heart liberal, but let’s fight poverty and ignorance, let’s get kids to read and write, let’s stop just blowing things up.
~ Ray