[US] Poverty fight cheaper than war: Clinton

from The London Free Press

MONTREAL -- Investing in the global fight against poverty is far cheaper than paying for the eventual consequences of inaction, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said yesterday.

"All of the things we can do are much cheaper than dealing with the aftermath of calamity," he told several thousand people who attended the Montreal Millennium Promise conference. "And they also parenthetically are much cheaper than going to war," he said to thunderous applause. The Americans have spent US$400 billion on the war in Iraq and US$100 billion on Afghanistan, yet have failed to honour their commitment to provide $30 billion a year in foreign aid, he noted. "It's quite astonishing the comparative costs of avoiding calamity with dealing with the aftermath," he said, referring to hardships in Darfur, Congo and Rwanda.