tradeoffs
According to the Cost of War website http://costofwar.com/, for what the US has spent on wrecking Iraq, we could have:
fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 9 years
fully funded global anti-AIDS programs for 22 years
assured that every child in the world was given basic immunizations for the next 74 years
paid for 29.6 million children to attend Head Start
built 2 million public housing units
They don’t say this, but it could also have funded a universal child care program in the US for three years (according to Barbara Bergmann’s estimate of the costs).
Doug