RUSSELL Skelton, in his article ''Australia 'lacks clear Afghan strategy' '' (The Age, 17/7), does not mention the financial costs of the war in Afghanistan. The United States has already committed about $US1 trillion on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is reported to have spent about £20 billion on both wars. The loss of lives, both combatants and in the civilian population, is the greatest tragedy in this brutal means of stimulating nations' economies. Imagine what we could have done with this money on winning the hearts and minds of people in the Islamic world to give them basic literacy and health and the infrastructure to build a foundation for better growth, peace and prosperity. Such measures would have gone a long way to eliminate anti-Americanism or anti-West feeling.
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