Refugees and war

My other blog has my travel journal, and this post builds off it. I just posted about my first direct experience with a young refugee: http://stidmatt.blogspot.com/2013/05/istanbul-and-tbilisi-march-16th-and-17th.html

The world spent $1.735 trillion USD collectively in 2012. Source

There are about 2 million refugees in the world. Source

If every refugee, from birth to death, was given only $1000 per year out of the global military budget than the military budget of the world would decrease to only $1.733 trillion.

There are approximately 284,000,000 people age 20-24 in the world today (Source). If every college age student received $5,000 guaranteed college tuition from this military fund the military budget of the world would decrease to $299 billion.

A more peaceful world is possible. A more just world is possible. As the 11th most decorated American soldier ever, Major General Smedley Butler said,

"Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket, 1. We must take the profit out of war."

If war wasn't profitable there wouldn't be the need to save 2 million refugees. If the people of the world made it clear that their money was to be used for building their countries, we would have money to ensure that every person has a decent education and the world would be a much better place. But this will only happen once we realize it is what we really want.