War and terrorism cost a lot of money. The current conflicts in the Ukraine and Syria and numerous African countries, not to mention the terrorism of ISO, requires huge sums of money to buy weapons and to maintain fighters.
None of these countries produce their own weapons so they are buying them from someone. Globally, the following 5 countries manufacture and sell most of the weapons used in the world today: USA, Russia, Britain, China, and India. Military weapons is a multi-billion dollar business, so there are many who have a vested interest in seeing conflict in the world.
If the NSA can track billions of emails and phone calls, it seems reasonable to assume they either do or could track the flow of money around the world. If Edward Snowden has information about this, its release could stir up more controversy and public concern than the privacy issues already divulged.
Perhaps if we had more transparency of the movement of money and arms, it might not be quite so easy for those who are fueling these conflicts with either weapons or money (or both) to do so in the future.
Perhaps if the United Nations passed regulation that made those countries who supply arms or money to armed conflicts responsible for the rebuilding of the country or area once the conflict has ended. This would be paid proportional to the amount of arms / money provided. The cost of restoration would be made public as a running total on a real time basis. Then the public of each nation supporting such conflicts would see what it is really costing them. Perhaps the profits of the arms producers might not look so rosy with such costs factored in.
Of course, it is wishful thinking to believe that either of these things would ever happen. Maybe some creative person(s) might simulate such a running total on a website somewhere.
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