Web Letters: More Guns, No Butter

Although you are correct about the exessive "pork" in our military budget, It is really hard to take you very seriously when you question in your first paragraph if there really is a "war on terror." Come on! wake up and take a realistic look at the world around you before making such a rediculous statement.

Rick Adams

Bowling Green, KY

I couldn't agree more with this editorial. I watched Gates on C-Span testifying before Senate about the defense budget. He was being pressured by some members of the Senate to fund more F-22s. The present budget funds enough F-22s to keep the line open until the Joint Strike fighter is ready to go on line, which cost half the price of the F-22s. Arkin , in his National Security column for the Washington Post, had a piece today about an Air Force General who wanted to go around Gates to fully fund the program at over 300 planes. While Gates would be able to control the generals, It is more difficult to control Congress, Bush and the industrial side of the military/ industrial complex. I think a large part of the problem is the privatization of government. The graft and corruption private enterprise brings to government is horrific. Sometime on late night cable, you can get some good documentaries. One called Iraq for Sale really exposed some of the graft involving private contractors. You could fund many social programs and the Defense Department by dumping these contractors.

Pervis J. Casey

Riverside, CA

Great editorial--however, the budget for the military is at least 25 percent higher than $700 billion. Chalmers Johnson lays it all out, in "Why the Debt Crisis Is Now the Greatest Threat to the American Republic."

If we are to get the American people behind cutting the defense budget, we need to go after all of it, including accountability for the Black Box budget. There must be someone at the CBO that can pass clearance.

Michael McKinlay

Hercules, CA