Letter: Military Can Afford Some Trimming

Both Democrats and Republicans agree that Congress needs to cut spending, but they will not touch sacred cows in order to do so. For instance, few in Congress will admit the proposed cut in military spending is not a cut at all, but rather a drop in its growth rate over a 10-year period. Hopefully, all Americans want the best safety equipment and salaries this nation can afford for its military men and women, along with improved care for veterans.

All of the above can be achieved without increasing military spending. How? By cutting billions of dollars in waste and corruption by so-called defense contractors. Remember the $650 claw hammers and the $600 toilet seats? Even Sen. John McCain, one of our most pro-military congressional members, says there’s too much waste in the defense budget. The U.S. military budget is greater than that of the top 10 largest nations of the world combined, according to President Barack Obama. Ten years ago, a study showed our nation had enough weapons of mass destruction to kill every human on Earth 43 times over. That’s 42 times too much overkill.

One reason this nation has to borrow money from China to pay its bills is because we are operating and paying for more than 800 overseas military bases, many of which are not needed, some congressional members say. An example would be in Germany, where we station thousands of troops at a cost of billions, even though Germany has one of the best equipped armies in the world.

We cannot and should not be expected to pay for policing the entire world. Until Congress is willing to listen to our late president, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who said to beware of the military-industrial complex, our nation will continue heading toward bankruptcy.

Vernon McDaniel