The Boston Globe decided to figure out what else could have been bought with the $456 billion that taxpayers have spent on the Iraq war. The 9th item is the one the struck a chord with me:
$54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth
At the upper range of those estimates, the $456 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world’s poor for five and a half years
I always find it amazing how war can bring in so much money, but people are not willing to spend the same money on education, healthcare, etc.