subject: Armies are cause of poverty [print this page] Nations wage a war to dominate over the poor and the smaller nations. All the monetary benefits aside the major psychological reason is the pride of being powerful. The pride is the father of all the evils and it is behind the wars. War is the only child of armies and they pamper it at the price of their stakes and fortunes all over the world. During the war the liberties are paralyzed and the hysteria occupies the nations to besiege the others. The countries knowingly and unknowingly go under the debts and diseases in the wake of war along with the internal taxes, but can not help stopping the militaries to march past. Freedom of the nation becomes the pretext but it is the thing that is taken away by wars. On the one hand the world is struggling to save man from the clutches of the poverty but on the other hand it is spending more on the wars.
How much the civilized world spends on the wars and militaries and to reduce poverty is an irony in itself? The protagonists of peace and human rights spend 1.5 trillion dollars annually. These are the estimates of 2009; obviously these have increased in the current year.
This increase is 6 % of the 2008's spending and 49 % since 2000 AD. This represents a 6 per cent increase in real terms since 2008 and a 49 per cent increase since 2000 that is the 2.7 % of the world GDP. The biggest military expenditures are of the USA which are almost half (46.5%) of the total expenditures of the world. Another trend in military spending is that a small number of countries spend the largest sums. According to SIPRI facts and figures only fifteen countries spend 82 percent of the total, USA 46.5%, China 6.6 %, France 4.2 % UK 3.8 % and Russia 3.5 % of the total world spending. America, Europe and Asia are in front of the world as far as military expenditures are concerned. North America 44%, rest of the Americas 4%, Europe 27%Middle East 6%Asia and Oceana 18 % and Africa 2% spend on the wars.
In spite of the world economic crises the military spending are increasing. The countries cut the expenditures of the sectors that were not responsible for the economic and financial crises but did not cut military expenditure. The pretext for not cutting the military expenditures was the foreign policy, real or supposed threats peacekeeping operations and economic resources. Only India and china and the nations with fossil oils were lucky enough to have some economic resources.
On the one side the countries and the organizations make a hue and cry to reduce poverty on the other hand US spend 8 billion dollars on cosmetics, Europe spends 11 billion dollars on ice-cream, Both the regions Europe and USA spend 12 billion dollars on perfumes and 17 billion dollars on pet food, Japan spends 35 billion dollars on business entertainment, Europe burns cigarettes of 50 billion dollars, drink alcohols of 105 billion dollars, wastes 400 billion dollars on narcotics.
On the other hand world spends only and only 6 billion dollars on basic education but 1000 billion dollars on wars. Health gets the global share of 13 billion dollars water and sanitation 9 billion dollars women health 12 billion dollars. Moreover 638 billion dollars are wasted on luxuries and futile activities only in Europe and USA.
How poverty can be reduced in the world where military spending is 1.5 trillion dollars and only 40 billion dollars are spend on the basic needs of life.
