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Just think what one could do with $14 trillion

It probably won't come as a surprise to those with an eye on world events, that the amount of money spent on war in 2014 came in at $14 trillion.     Just imagine what positive things could be done and achieved if that sort of money - or even a fraction of it - were to be diverted to something positive......like work on a cure for cancer and disease, alleviating poverty, feeding the hungry, etc. etc.

If "global violence were to decrease by 10 percent uniformly, an additional US$1.43 trillion would effectively be added to the world economy.” 

A new report released Friday said that the global cost of war was soaring as it was US$14 trillion in 2014. 

The report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) also claimed that conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were responsible for most of the deaths in the world. 

According to the report, Syria remained the least peaceful place on Earth, followed by Iraq and Afghanistan, with the United States contributing violence in all three nations.

 “Last year alone it is estimated that 20,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks up from an average of 2,000 a year only 10 years ago,” the report said. The Global Peace Index report said that war spending amounts to 13 percent of the global GDP, which is almost the combined value of the economies of United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Spain and Brazil."

Continue reading this piece, from telesur, here.

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