Was reading the Daily Mirror today when I came across this -
JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva says the government cannot blame the rising cost of living on the war. Speaking to the media today the JVP MP said by blaming the cost of living on the war there could be serious repercussions on the military operations.
Now that is a statement that would draw an exclamation from any body, and certainly made me incredulous.
As of 2004, Sri Lanka had 8000 military personnel per million population, which was the highest in South Asia, as well as spending about 4.1% of the GDP on military expenditure. (According to the Strategic Foresight Group)
According to Global Security (2003) figures 606 million dollars were spent on Military Expenditure.
Now of course one shouldn’t highlight this sort of expenditure because otherwise people might actually realize that this war costs more than we could afford. Even these rough figures can show you that. Flattening the economy to win a war does not seem a fair trade to me. But try telling that to machismo oozing war mongers..
