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t's obscene that our country is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the military when so many of our neighbors are suffering from poverty, hunger and the inability to meet their basic needs. Can we really justify this in the name of "National Security"? I don't think we're very secure at all when one in seven Americans lives below the poverty line.
The reality is that many more Americans die of poverty than terrorism. According to the U.S. State Department, 56 American civilians died due to terrorism worldwide in 2005. That same year, 472 lives were cut short due to homelessness (pdf) in Los Angeles County alone.
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The rest is at the source. Even adding in our soldiers deaths to those of civilians, it appears that poverty would 'win' any numbers battle.
The author blames military spending, I'm not sure I know what the answer is. I'm not really surprised at the numbers, but this is the first time I'd seen the comparison.
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