“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in
the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are
cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
–Former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
in a speech on April 16, 1953.
These powerful words are applicable today as Pakistan becomes the tenth largest importer of arms in the world. Pakistan spent $735 million on arms imports in 2015. This amount of money could have saved hundreds of life in Thar, provided water to drought-ridden cities like Gwadar, improved healthcare and education in Sindh and Balochistan. Instead we continue to fuel the never ending war against terrorism at the cost of innocent children much like America was doing in the 50s.