Warfare and children.

In 2007, 136 million children were born in the world, and 9.2 million died before they were 5 years old; 99.8% of these deaths were in developing countries, and 8.2 million were unnecessary. This is 23 000 unnecessary deaths every day. Approximately 0.2 million children die from the direct effects of war every year, and at least twice as many die from the indirect effects. However, most child deaths are caused by common childhood infections in communities that are not affected by war. In 2007, overseas development aid totalled only $104 billion, and world military expenditure totalled US$1339 billion. The 49 poorest countries in the world have a population of 1.3 billion; they spent only $27 per person on health in 2006, but the world spent $201 per person on military activity. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council account for 90% of weapons sales to developing countries, yet they are the very countries that have accepted responsibility for ensuring world security. Unfortunately, many governments in both rich and poor countries do not want to limit military spending - the vested interests that support military activity are too powerful. War is immensely harmful, but not primarily because of the horrible injuries, nor the large number of deaths it causes indirectly from infection, malnutrition, and social and political disruption. By far, the greatest harm comes from the diversion of huge amounts of money that could be used for beneficial development into harmful and destructive military activity.