Cost of the war

An photo-article at The Boston Globe looks at what else the money so far spent on the invasion of Iraq could have been used for…

According to the article, just ⅙ of the cost of the war would have been sufficient to convert every vehicle in the United States to run an ethanol.

It’s also quite telling that schools and building projects come first, that free petrol for every American comes before conversion to ethanol, and it’s not until the second-to-last entry that it is mentioned that the $456 billion so far expended in Iraq could have fed the entire population of the world for 5½ years.

Isn’t is deplorable beyond words that politics works such that enormous amounts can be easily signed-off for use on (reducing) the nation’s security, but that even a small fraction of the same amount can’t be allocated to saving the planet or its population?