$115,972,890,670 and counting

How much does it actually cost to change regimes?

Ever since we marched on 22/02/03 to protest against the proposed invasion of Iraq, we have been assailed on all sides by our less fluffy brethren, who accuse us of being idealistic, unrealistic and appeasers of fascism. Even our so-called friend on the left (such as Nick Cohen and David Aaronovitch at The Observer ) consider that the wider cause of social justice was served by toppling Saddam. You could almost say the ends justified the means, if it were not for the fact that the phrase has a rather undistinguished history not usually associated with social justice.

Fair enough then, let us call for regime change wherever there is injustice. Let us use the unprecedented military might of the USA as a force for good, sweeping away dictators in a series of shocking and awful hammer blows.

However, before we reach for our cluster bombs could I posit a couple of questions:

- Who decides which regimes are inherently unjust? Will undemocratic states such as Bhutan be targeted, even though it measures its progress according to the 'Gross National Happiness' index, and has the lowest proportion of crime and civil strife in the world? Will Russia be next on the list in view of the criticisms that this week's election was flawed? Who decides these things?

- As the cost of the Iraq 'crusade' has been over $115 BILLION to date, can we afford to spend the dollars necessary to topple all these regimes?

- Let's say there is a list of ten regimes we would like to see changed. We would need to budget something in the order of $1.5 TRILLION to take care of the issue.

In view of these obstacles, here is an alternative budget proposal:

$13bn will meet the world's food and sanitation requirements
$6bn per annum would put every child in school

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will try to find the time to flesh out these proposals...