NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
The following comment piece is available for reproduction, in part or
whole, citing the Worldwatch Institute.

For more information or additional comment on the issue, please contact:

Leanne Mitchell, Public Relations Specialist, Worldwatch Institute
Tel: (202) 452-1992 ext.527; Fax: (202) 296-7365; Email:
[email protected]

A Global Marshall Plan to Fight Terrorism

Comment by Richard C. Bell and Michael Renner
Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C.

What do you think of this advice from a senior U.S. military officer and
statesman about how the people of the United States should deal with a
part of the world torn by war, poverty, disease and hunger:

"...it is of vast importance that our people reach some
general understanding of what the complications really are, rather than
react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment....It is
virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or listening,
or even seeing photographs or motion pictures, to grasp at all the real
significance of the situation. And yet the whole world of the future
hangs on a proper judgment."

The speaker was General George C. Marshall, outlining the Marshall Plan
for the very first time in an address at Harvard on June 5, 1947.
Surveying the wrecked economies of Europe, Marshall noted the
"possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of
the people concerned." He said that there could be "no political
stability and no assured peace" without economic security, and that U.S.
policy was "directed not against any country or doctrine but against
hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."

With the Bush administration pulling back from immediate strikes in
retaliation for the September 11 terrorist assaults, the President's
advisers should consider the relevance of Marshall's strategy to the
moral and political problems America now confronts. Of course we should
find the people responsible for the deaths in New York and Washington,
D.C. and bring them to justice, and work with other nations to root out
existing terrorist networks. But we must do so in a way that does not
result in the indiscriminate deaths of even more innocent people, deaths
that would only deepen the cycles of anger and rage.

What is still missing after the administration's recent public dampening
of its "war on terrorism" rhetoric is almost any recognition of the
underlying problems that have to be addressed, regardless of how
successful we may be in the short run in tracking down the perpetrators
of September 11. As Marshall's words so plainly suggest, finding the
terrorists should be part of a much more ambitious campaign, one in
which the rich countries approach the appalling inequities of the world
with the same boldness and determination that the United States brought
to bear in Europe in 1947 under the Marshall Plan.

We don't really need to spend another dime on "intelligence" to know
what the conditions are that leave whole countries in a state of despair
and misery. Some 1.2 billion people worldwide struggle to survive on $1
day or less. 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and
2.9 billion have inadequate access to sanitation. At least 150 million
people are unemployed and 900 million are "underemployed"-contending
with inadequate incomes despite long hours of backbreaking work.

Globalization has raised expectations, even as modern communications
make the rising inequality between a rich, powerful, and imposing West
and the rest of the world visible to all. Poverty and deprivation do
not automatically translate into hatred. But people whose hopes have
worn thin, whose aspirations have been thwarted, and whose discontent is
rising, are far more likely to succumb to the siren song of extremism.
This is particularly true for the swelling ranks
of young people whose prospects for the future are bleak. Some 34
percent of the developing world's population is under 15 years of age.

The United States and the other industrial nations should launch a
global Marshall Plan to provide everyone on earth with a decent standard
of living. We can already hear the cries of people claiming that such a
global plan would "cost too much" or "take too long". But let's look at
the numbers. The cost of moving towards "war" has soared into the tens
of billions of dollars, on top of an already large proposed defense
budget of $342.7 billion.

For the sake of comparison, let's assume that the United States will
spend $100 billion on the "war" in the next 12 months. What could we buy
if we matched this $100 billion military expenditure dollar-for-dollar
with spending on programs to alleviate human suffering?

A report in 1998 by the United Nations Development Programme estimated
the annual cost to achieve universal access to a number of basic social
services in all developing countries: $9 billion would provide water and
sanitation for all; $12 billion would cover reproductive health for all
women; $13 billion would give every person on earth basic health and
nutrition; and $6 billion would provide basic education for all.

These sums are substantial, but they are still only a fraction of the
tens of billions of dollars we're likely to spend on the "war." And
these social and health expenditures pale in comparison with what is
being spent on the military by all nations-some $780 billion each year.

Social investments can also produce quick results. Development does not
happen overnight, of course, but the World Health Organization and
UNICEF have shown that some critical health issues can be turned around
rapidly. In the 1990s, the WHO assembled a coalition of 47 countries in
a program to iodize salt, cutting in half the share of people at risk of
iodine deficiency-in just three years. Concerted government action
recently reduced cases of malaria in Viet Nam by 60 percent in just five
years, and by more than 50 percent in Azerbaijan in three years.

There is a bitter irony in watching the Bush administration's feverish
efforts to build a "war" coalition. There was no such effort, not in
the United States nor in any of the other rich nations, to build a
coalition to eradicate hunger, to immunize all children, to provide
clean water, to eradicate infectious disease, to provide adequate jobs,
to combat illiteracy, to build decent housing.

The cost of failing to advance human security and to eliminate the
fertile ground upon which terrorism thrives is already escalating.
Since September 11, we know that sophisticated weapons are no protection
against those who are out to seek vengeance, at any cost, for real and
perceived wrongs. Unless our priorities change, the threat is certain to
keep rising in coming years.

By finally mobilizing adequate resources to address human suffering,
President Bush has a unique opportunity to seize the terrible moment of
September 11 and earn a truly exalted place in human history. But
first, we must all understand that in the end, weapons alone cannot buy
us a lasting peace in a world of extreme inequality, injustice, and
deprivation for billions of our fellow human beings.

-end-

Richard C. Bell is Vice President for Communications at the Worldwatch
Institute. He is a co-author of Nukespeak: Nuclear Language, Visions and
Mindset.

Michael Renner is a Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute,
specializing in security issues. He is the author of Fighting For
Survival: Environmental Decline, Social Conflict, And The New Age Of
Insecurity

(1100 words)

Leanne Mitchell
Public Relations Specialist
----------------------------------------------
Worldwatch Institute
1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC 20036
Tel: (202) 452-1992 ext.527
Fax: (202) 296-7365
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.worldwatch.org

***************************************************************************
The Worldwatch Press Information list is maintained by the Worldwatch
Institute
for the global news media. Postings to this list will include advance
copies of
news releases and notification of press conferences. The Worldwatch
Institute
is a nonprofit research organization that analyzes global environmental and
development issues. Worldwatch's expert researchers are available to
provide
journalists with the latest data and thinking on global environmental and
development trends.
To remove yourself from this mailing list, send the following command in
email
to :
unsubscribe worldwatch
end
To contact the press office at Worldwatch directly, send email to

***************************************************************************