Web Letters: Redefining National Security

The military is playing on our fears of disaster in order to justify wasting more money on growing the military. We need a strong military, to be sure, but we would be better served if we would reduce our vulnerability to threats to our economy and to our safety so that military solutions are not the only choice. We need to suspend forever the speculative trading of oil, develop and deploy a significant number of alternative energy solutions, re-regulate the banking industry, and plan and control housing costs so that there are no more bubbles to burst.

We have been engaged in two wars in the Middle East for much of this decade and we are now being told that the risk and threat to our country is as high as ever. Quite obviously then, a military only solution is not getting us very far or very fast.

Alternative energy solutions are not subject to the ups and downs of the market, or the whims of the Middle Eastern leaders with direct ties to terrorism. Once a solar panel is installed, the sun shines for free each day. If a consumer borrows money to install solar panels, the payment is predictably the same each month. Family budgets are easier to plan and we have just stabilized energy costs.

When a consumer plugs in his hybrid car to that same solar panel, then transportation costs are also stabilized. Predictability is what we are after, in the form of a stable economy without the boom/bust activity that has plagued us much of the time. We have just stabilized transportation costs.

Banks need to be tightly regulated so that loans are written with the express purpose in mind of helping borrowers be successful with home purchases--not so that investment bankers can grow rich.

Now we are going to stabilize housing costs. A house should be redefined as a place where a homeowner lives and not a commodity to be bought, marked up and resold as some sort of a scam for the investment community. There should not be a "housing market" at all. "Market" needs to go away when we talk about housing, and capitalism needs to be turned on its head.

I would have the government determine the cost of a house based on the wages of the local workers. I would take the average local worker's wage, divide it by four, and that would be an acceptable payment for a house; from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

By making housing affordable to everyone, there would be no foreclosures and there would be no homeless people. There are houses standing empty all around the country and there are homeless people wandering the streets. There is an obvious solution staring us all right in the face. Let's put two or three homeless people in each empty house and get them all jobs!

At least part of the economic woes we experience here in 2009 are the result of high gas prices in 2006 and 2007. You cannot inflate the cost of basic goods such as gas and housing without also raising wages to a comparable amount. This is Economics 101. Yet Bush allowed and encouraged the speculative trading of oil commodities and reduced capital gains taxes on the sale of property. We need to both move away from Big Oil and move away from Wall Street.

The people do not need Wall Street. Wall Street needs the people. The people need a good pension system that accumulates no matter how many jobs you have throughout the course of a lifetime and where those jobs are. Social Security and a well-funded pension system will help people enjoy their golden years.

A strong military is only one small part of the equation for peace and prosperity in the United States. We need to replace Big Oil and Big Coal with small green alternatives. We should insist that a house is only for home owners or renters. Houses should cost only what a worker can pay. Hybrid cars should replace existing gas-guzzlers and banks need to be re-regulated.

Gary Amstutz

Lake Isabella, CA

America is obviously the most powerful weapon of mass destruction on this planet. We are always claiming to be threatened by others, the Red Scare of communism--go so far as being scared of an attack by Cuba! How big is Cuba? Like the size of Long Island, NY? Then after the cold war face-off stand down, it became terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism. Which, might I add, we created to help us fight Communism!

America loves spending money on war machines, weapons of mass destruction. We have a stockpile of WMDs in this country greater than that the entire world put together. We cry over Iran wanting to work with nuclear technology, while we have 10,000 nuclear weapons. (And Israel has 400--just thought I'd mention that).

The fact remains, we, America is the only country on Planet Earth to ever use a nuclear weapon, two of them in fact, on Japan.

Yet we continue to spend billions and billions of dollars on newer weapons, more powerful weapons, stealthier weapons, weapons to fight invisible enemies. People who only hate us because we bully them and rape them of their resources and build McDonalds on their land for our own private interests of nothing but profit and war!

What about this fleet of 24 Marine One helicopters to be built costing in excess of $6 billion--in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression?

I say we redefine homeland security as a better healthcare system. Healthy Americans make for productive Americans. I say we redefine "homeland security" by rebuilding and modernizing and making green our broken infrastructure in this country. Adding broadband internet connections to every home in this country--after all, a well-informed American can make wise decisions. I say instead of building newer more powerful weapons of mass destruction and instead of giving money to Israel to build their own WMDs, we invest that money in America, in the educational system, in the national debt, etc.

These are the ways to redefine homeland security, not by beefing up the already obese military and military spending budget. How about pulling all our troops out of the Middle East and saving many many American soldiers from dying, as well as many many many Iraqi and Afghanistan civilians from dying!

Now I don't know how you all feel about this, but this is what I think a redefining of homeland security would be and I think it would lead to a strong, healthy and smarter America who could truly lead by example, if we feel a desire to lead, instead of being the bully who plays with carrots and very big sticks.

KRISTOFER PASSAGGIO

North Hollywood, CA