Just the Issues

Instead of spending $2.89 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Syria, we could have paid over 1.4 million Americans a $100,000 salary—plus full international travel and living expenses—to live abroad and serve as global goodwill ambassadors for an entire decade. Rather than sinking our national wealth into dropping bombs, funding troop deployments, and managing the endless aftermath of conflict, we could deploy a peaceful workforce the size of a major metropolis to immerse themselves in foreign communities, build genuine relationships, and proactively dismantle tension at the grassroots level.

Instead of spending $1.05 trillion annually to maintain our current military machine, we could redirect those funds to pay 5.25 million everyday citizens to travel the planet promoting peace every single year. Even if we just chose to cancel the $144 billion we spend annually on developing new weapons, we could employ over 700,000 Americans right now in a massive, six-figure jobs program dedicated entirely to global friendship. It is a fundamental shift in strategy: instead of spending trillions fighting our enemies, we could invest that exact same money directly into the American middle class to ensure we don't have enemies in the first place.