“Since the conflagration of World War II, there have been 105 major wars ([reckoned by] deaths of 1,000 or more per year) fought in 66 countries and territories. . . . The wars since 1945 have caused 16 million deaths, many more among civilians than among the armed forces involved. (The count, especially for civilians, is incomplete; no official records are kept for most wars.)”​—World Military and Social Expenditures 1983 by Ruth Sivard.

To help put such costs in perspective, World Military and Social Expenditures 1983 explains: “Every minute 30 children die for want of food and inexpensive vaccines and every minute the world’s military budget absorbs $1.3 million of the public treasure.” (Italics ours.) And now, in two more years, it has reached $2 million each minute.