Many parts of the developing world deal with issues that we, in the United States of Delusion, only experience through some guys web blog; Tuberculosis, Cholera, Malaria, Encephalitis, Starvation, and Aids Orphans to name a few. Yet, it just recently dawned on me that, setting aside the election, the predominant story on every news outlet in most areas of the world for the last five years has been war in South-West Asia. (I don’t call it the Middle East because it’s too easily confused with the Mid-West… that,  and it really doesn’t apply, but that’s another article)

Surely, this must be because of the death toll sustained by various coalition members in operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.  At the time of this writing 4,524 ((http://icasualties.org/oif/)) coalition members in Iraq and 1,019 ((http://icasualties.org/oef/)) coalition members in Afghanistan have died on foreign soil.  Taking into account the projected 97,814 ((http://www.iraqbodycount.org/)) civilian deaths, we get a grand total of 103,357 dead.  (Now don’t get mad because of what I’m about to tell you; I did three tours in Iraq, and have several friends counted in those numbers) That is nothing in comparison to the number of poverty and aids related deaths (mostly in children under five years of age) occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa.  One estimate ((http://cozay.com/)) puts the annual death toll at over ten million people, almost all of whom are children under five years of age.  Consider that even if you added together every death from all Islamic terrorism from recorded history, you wouldn’t get anywhere near that one-year, poverty-related death toll.  But we know that the media only focuses on the deaths of white people of European descent. Surely there must be another reason for our focus.

It is but my humble opinion that we focus so much attention on South-West Asia because it is a major budget item.  The daily cost of operations ((http://www.upi.com/Features/Voice_Young_Voters/2008/10/20/Education_economy_feeling_effects_of_war_Group_cites_daily_cost_of_Iraq_War_as_720_million/1224521645221/)) in Iraq alone total $720M (US) and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are major contributing factors for the current economic depression in the United States.  In comparison, the US contributes around $1B (US) annually to combat hunger and poverty annually.  That mean that taxpayers are paying 365 times more to combat terror in Iraq than they are paying to combat hunger in the world.

Also, the media (and the American people by association) doesn’t fully understand how the events on other continents affect their lives.  The only connection in the the American consciousness between the dual wars in South-West Asia and their lives stem from the events of 9/11 or the price of gasoline.  Concepts of globalization, emerging markets, child labor, world ecology, and disease epidemics aren’t familiar to the average American and therefore they can’t relate to them.  Is it any wonder that the government is accused of fear mongering?  Think about it.  Given the choice, would you rather explain to a child the details of morality or scare them into doing the right thing and hope they’ll find morals on their own?  (think of every fable or fairy tale you ever heard or told)

It is very clear that, in the competition for attention between war and poverty, war is the clear victor.  That definitely isn’t to say war is more important or has a greater effect on American lives.  It is clear that the perils of poverty, and the milestones in the fight against it, throughout the world effect us a great deal, however the perils and milestones of war are a great deal easier to understand.  Maybe that’s why we spend so much more money on war than on preventing suffering.  So what to do?  Certainly more money would help, but it won’t solve the problem by itself.  International attention would also help, but will be meaningless unless it invokes action.  Also, any action would need a fair local government and popular support to be effective.  So where does that leave us?  What is the next step?  God only knows.  Maybe Hollywood should cancel one war movie this year to make a movie about poverty.  (although those of us who saw Gandhi know that a three hour movie about a man nearly starving to death isn’t exactly a summer blockbuster)  OR maybe we should wait for someone to solve the problem for us… the true American way.