NEW YORK: While the US government spends billions of dollars to wage war against Iraq, some 30 million people in the United States go hungry, 12 million of whom are children, says Anuradha Mittal, co-director of the California-based Institute for Food and Development Policy.

An estimated 33 million US residents live below the poverty line, according to the most recent Census Bureau figures, which identify children, single mothers, and the elderly as most likely to face hunger.

The US poverty rate was 11.7 per cent in 2001, up from 11.3 per cent in the year before, with rates nearly double that among Latinos and blacks, the two ethnic minorities suffering most from hunger and poverty, given their share in the US population.

The Bush administration aims to spend up to $400 billion this year on defence, while allocating only $16 billion to welfare, says Mittal, who has spent years researching global food distribution systems.

“This is not just a war on Iraq. This is a war on the poor people in America,” according to the expert for the IFDP, an independent think tank that advocates sustainable and socially just food system in the world.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.