by JEFF BERG
PHOTO/Woodleywonderworks
A recent Brown University Study showed that, between 2001 and 2016, the cost of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan has cost the US $3.6 trillion.
~ Ramzy Baroud
Imagine if you will that the U.S. had instead put $3.6 trillion into measures to improve infrastructure around the world. It has been estimated by the UNDP that to give the entire world fresh water and sanitation would cost half a trillion. That leaves $3.1 trillion for further projects. Now what would the U.S. have gained by being the country known for giving the entire world a glass a water and a place to shit? Think on it.
The first obvious effect would be a tremendous uplift to U.S. prestige. That is so obvious as to be unnecessary to argue. The public relations value of such an act would echo for generations. In addition, it would give the U.S. reputation a saintly glow that would render it all but immune to attacks of any kind. Who after all would sympathize with any who attacked such a country? Who would not come to its defense?
This of course would only be the beginning as there is $3.1 trillion still to go. The next thing the U.S. could do would be to give light to the world. I.e. To create small scale solar and wind power along with battery storage so that every village of the world no matter how remote would be able to light their way through the night. One of the biggest obstacles to schooling in the undeveloped world is that the children cannot read and study after sundown. I know of no studies as to what this would cost. What one can say with assurance is that as compared to the massive infrastructure requirements for water and sanitation the costs would be less for such an initiative. Let’s say $300 billion just to be safe. That leaves $2.8 trillion.
So now the U.S. is the country that has given the entire world a glass of water and a place to shit and the country that has lit the night. Again the goodwill that this would create is hard to overestimate. Again the U.S. would massively enhance its reputation and further immunize itself as a target. Again, who would sympathize with anyone who struck such a country?
And still there is $2.8 trillion left to spend. It was properly pointed out long ago that you can feed a man for a day if you give him a fish but feed him for life if you teach him to fish. Simultaneously we are as a species in dire need of sequestering carbon. So imagine that the U.S. funded a global program for biochar and soil remediation as well as anti-desertification and reforestation programs. This could be combined with programs for algae ponds and the sustainable harvesting of vegetation for the creation of biofuels. This would allow over a billion people without the means to afford fossil fuels to power machines to increase the efficiency of their work thus greatly increasing their quality of life. Let us wildly overspend on these programs to reflect the speed at which they need to be implemented. After all a recent paper in Nature put our chances of staying below 1.5C at 1%. So let us imagine the U.S. tossing a trillion into these pots.
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