In the middle of a troubling economy, what could be done with $720 million a day?

The American Friends Service Committee, an anti-war group, said the daily funds for the Iraq war could give Americans 6,482 homes, 1,153,846 school lunches, 84 new elementary schools and provide 163,525 people with health care.

UGA Progressives and Athens for Justice in Palestine hosted a lecture on Friday to discuss the cost of the Iraq War. The lecture was part of a series given by American Friends Service Committee in an effort to inform people about what they believed to be the negative effects of the Iraq War on American life and on Iraq.

“We picked this week to host this tour because this week marks six years since we’ve been in Iraq,” said Tim Franzen, peace building program director of American Friends Service Committee.

Franzen said during a time of economic crisis, America could not afford to be spending $720 million a day on the Iraq war.

“We’re really framing this war, and other wars, as a robbery from our communities.”

According the American Friends Service Committee, more than $1 trillion has been spent on the Iraq War, causing the government to cut funding for at home programs that benefit the community, such as Head Start, Community Food and affordable housing. National Priorities Project estimates cost of the Iraq War to be more than $606 billion.

“We’re in an economic crisis. We’re bailing out banks. But we’re spending $1 trillion in Iraq?” said Phil Aliff, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Aliff said the war in Iraq was more about retaining global power than defeating terrorist organizations.

“We started the war on terror as ‘We need to find Al Qaeda and Bin Laden.’ But in reality Al Qaeda tried to turn in Bin Laden several times, and Bush didn’t want them to do it,” Aliff said. “If you control the world’s resources, you control the world economy.”

Aliff said the Iraq War was an illegal war and should not be allowed to continue because it violated human rights.

“The war in Iraq is an illegal order. It is an illegal order according to international law. And you are told from day one to report illegal orders to an authority,” Aliff said.

“Our illegal orders come from the President of the United States. Who do we report it to? It’s hypocrisy of the military in my opinion.”

Zach Choate, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, said soldiers were taught to fear and fight an enemy that in many cases didn’t exist.

“You’re training for a war. You’re training to fight an enemy. And like these others, I didn’t find an enemy. It’s hard to fight a person when they’re just a regular human being who wants to live like you and me,” Choate said.

Jason Hurd, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, said he experienced a lot of racism in the military, which made it easier for soldiers to fight their enemies.

“There is this term that every person in the military knows, and it’s Haji. It’s the same as gook; it’s the same as Vietcong. It’s a racist term,” Hurd said. “You have to dehumanize people. You have to think of them as lower than you in order to fight them.”

Hurd said there are machines where kids can play games that simulate war, and that the military uses those to train them to think of war like a video game.

“I was playing this game, ‘Call of Duty,’ and the enemies in that game looked Middle Eastern. And that’s what they’re marketing to 15-year-olds,” said Socrates Okonkwo, a junior from Albany.

Representatives from Iraq Veterans Against the War said that it would take citizen involvement and personal research to help achieve an end to the Iraq War.

“We got no apology, no ‘oops, my bad.’ And this is a huge ‘oops, my bad.’ This is a six-year ‘oops, my bad,’” Choate said.

“I encourage all of you to look for the facts, because you’re not going to see the truth in mainstream media. It’s going to take the few of us who will speak the truth and say how unjust this war is,” Choate said.