face the facts
(Originally published Wednesday, December 28, 2005)
Let Them Eat Guns?, Sojourners Magazine/January 2006
World military expenditure exceeded $1 trillion in 2004. The United States accounted for 47 percent of this spending.
$238 billion. Appropriations for the “war on terror†for 2003–05, which exceeded the combined military spending of the entire developing world in 2004 ($214 billion).
$236 billion. The combined arms sales of the top 100 companies in 2003. The top five companies accounted for 44 percent of this total.
$2.5 billion per year: The external funding required by 47 countries with the lowest primary school completion rates in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education.
$2.4 billion per year: The cost to halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
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The facts are disturbing, but I pray we will have the good sense and courage to face them and to revise our priorities!