This week, we celebrate the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. I still remember the start very well.



Time for a calculation.



1. The newspaper today states one minute of war in Iraq costs US$380,000. A calculation made by Joseph Stiglitz, a US Nobelprize winning economist.

That is almost double the cost of the war in Vietnam.



2. According to WFP, the UN's food aid organisation, it costs US$0.19 to feed a child for a day. Nineteen cents.

20,000 children die of hunger every day. The time it took you to read this post, already 15 died.



3. Taking those two figures together, one minute of war in Iraq would feed 2,000,000 children for a day.

One day of war in Iraq would feed 8,000,000 children for a year .



4. There are 800 million hungry in the world. Three-four months of war in Iraq would feed all hungry in the world.

Three-four months of war, we have done before. Many times. But we have never fed all the hungry in the world.



I do not understand. Somewhere the calculation does not make sense. Otherwise all intelligent people in the world would have cried foul. Wouldn't we? ...Wouldn't we?



Photo credit: Robert Kasca. Picture taken after the bombing of the UN building in Baghdad.



Update March 18 : I received a lot of queries about "the 19 cents/day" it costs to feed a child. Here you find more detailed info.



