In a New Year’s Day editorial in The New York Times in 2002, former Democratic Senator from South Dakota and 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern proposed allocating $5 billion of the $40 billion approved for the war on terrorism at the time to fight world hunger over the following five years. This proposal was also endorsed by former Republican Senator from Kansas and 1996 presidential candidate Bob Dole. McGovern and Dole had been bipartisan supporters of anti-hunger efforts in the US Senate for many years. The co-founder of World Campaign, Keith Blume, met with McGovern and other senators who wrote to President Carter urging him to see an earlier film he produced on hunger, which among other things pointed out the relationship between hunger and violent upheaval. The President referenced the film at a cabinet meeting beginning an increased US commitment to end world hunger. Blume later interviewed Dole for another film on hunger, and from the Carter Presidency to the first Bush Presidency (as well as before and since), there was bipartisan acknowledgment of the important connection between hunger, global violence and national security. Brent Scowcroft, National Security Advisor to President Bush, noted the importance of support for food aid and sustainable development from the multi-year public service campaign effort to end hunger of the organization which subsequently created World Campaign. When making their proposal to use a portion of the funds for the war on terror to end hunger, McGovern and Dole, who supported fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, pointed out that fighting hunger and deprivation were also key factors in winning the war on terror. However, their proposal was not adopted. In addition to the focus at the time being almost solely on traditional national security and military operations, some concern was raised regarding effectiveness of aid to end hunger in unstable situations, even though this problem had always existed in areas of greatest need. Although significant amounts of aid have been misused historically, substantial amounts have simultaneously been effective. The five years during which the McGovern-Dole proposal would have been implemented have now passed. Nearly a billion people on the planet are seriously malnourished and many more are undernourished. On World Food Day, two months ago, the UN Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) lamented the fact that hunger continues to rise, after headway was being made in reducing hunger through the early nineties. In hindsight, do you believe the McGovern-Dole proposal to utilize approximately 12% of funding for the war on terrorism from 2002 through 2007 to alleviate world hunger, which would have certainly contributed to reducing hunger, and may also have contributed to reducing the fertile ground on which terrorism is bred, as well as improving US global credibility, should have been adopted?