[Mb-civic] A Marshall Plan for the third world - Lawrence Korb and Arnold Kohen - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

A Marshall Plan for the third world

By Lawrence Korb and Arnold Kohen  |  November 15, 2005

WITH THE international donors conference for millions of earthquake 
victims in Kashmir in northern Pakistan collecting only about a quarter 
of its $550 million goal in Geneva recently, it is fair to ask if the 
United States and others are doing enough.

To be sure, the United States has sent badly needed military helicopters 
and an army field hospital, donating a total of $156 million. But this 
is a small sum when measured against the cost of fighting Al Qaeda 
worldwide, let alone the war in Iraq. The United States is unlikely to 
prevail by military means; a better alternative must be provided.

In Pakistan, a pivotal Muslim nation, the United States cannot afford to 
fall short. The Kashmir catastrophe affects larger numbers of people 
than the Asian tsunami last year in more difficult terrain. Many face 
death with the onset of the forbidding Himalayan winter in Kashmir, 
especially children, and time is running out.

To address this tragedy and other human needs, reconsideration of 
America's international spending priorities finally must be at the 
center of any serious debate.

The defense budget now exceeds $440 billion a year, 40 percent above 
that spent before Sept. 11. Counting spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, 
total expenditures for the US military exceed $500 billion annually. In 
contrast, the respected British journal, the Lancet, has published a 
study stressing that $5.1 billion (about one-half of 1 percent of the $1 
trillion in annual global military spending) could save the lives of 6 
million children worldwide.

To put it another way, UNICEF's annual budget is spent on the world's 
military purposes every 15 hours, even as one billion children live in 
almost unimaginable conditions of deprivation.

Consider the potential impact on both human lives and on world opinion 
of devoting a portion of the huge US defense budget to stepping up 
humanitarian and development assistance and, more specifically, child 
survival worldwide. This might contribute to a more secure and peaceful 
America and world in the long term.

Indeed, a poll by Pew indicates that US deliveries of tsunami aid in 
Aceh, part of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, may have 
done more to promote goodwill toward the United States than anything 
else since Sept. 11. Many Marines were elated at how they were greeted 
by local people, comparing this with the extreme hazards and hostility 
they face in Iraq.

One should recall the way US forces were welcomed in Europe in the years 
of the Marshall Plan from 1947-51. Under the plan, the United States 
contributed about $13 billion (about $100 billion in today's dollars) 
toward the rebuilding of Europe.

Today, finding ways to eradicate malnutrition and conduct public health 
campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan could bolster successful transitions 
to democracy. Afghanistan has maternal mortality rates about 60 times 
the rate in industrialized nations. One-fifth of all children die before 
age 5, 80 percent from preventable diseases.

Moreover, several Middle Eastern countries are falling behind in meeting 
child survival criteria of the Millennium Development Goals. The goals, 
aimed at reducing by half the 1.1 billion people living in extreme 
poverty by 2015, were unanimously adopted by the United Nations with US 
support in 2000.

The example of Yemen warrants special notice. This is, after all, the 
ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden and the locale of the terrorist 
attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

According to UNICEF, the number of babies who die in childbirth in Yemen 
is 366 per 100,000, compared with nine in the United States. One third 
of Yemen's children go unvaccinated.

Similar conditions exist in Sudan, Bangladesh, and other Muslim 
countries (including Pakistan), linchpins in the struggle against 
terror, where the United States needs all the goodwill it can muster. 
And despite recent gains, child mortality remains high in Indonesia, and 
especially in neighboring East Timor, still recovering from devastation 
by Indonesian forces in 1999.

The disparity between the costs of the war in Iraq and spending on child 
survival in countries such as Yemen is stark. Beyond its inherent value 
in moral and human terms, the message sent by a significant adjustment 
of these priorities could have a powerful impact over time.

The unpopularity of the war in Iraq will continue to be a complicating 
factor, but going forward, a different dynamic can be created. This 
should include a major boost in US earthquake aid for Kashmir to help 
the most vulnerable, among them, children.

World security depends upon a creative reordering of spending priorities.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/11/15/a_marshall_plan_for_the_third_world/