This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It's difficult to truly grasp things measured in millions. The human mind can scarcely imagine things measured in billions and trillions of dollars. But let's give it a shot — with the nondiscussed, illegal, unwarranted (i.e., zero evidence of what happened and by whom) and counterproductive April 7 attack on Syria, which took 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles. At $1.4 million per missile, we arrive at $82.6 million.
On a more tangible level, the average Utah teacher salary is $49,393. Those 59 missiles raining down horror and destruction could have paid the salaries of 1,672 Utah teachers for a year. Multiply that by roughly 10,000 and you'll have some notion of how much our military expenditures are denying us in health care, jobs programs, education, infrastructure improvements and other pro-people social programs.
Yet we call ourselves a "Christian nation," eager to help others and spread democracy around the world. Having spent 25 years in elementary education, I cannot see this as a wise use of tax dollars.
Daniel Geery
Salt Lake City