Letter: Billions of dollars wasted to fight imaginary threats

Editor,

It should serve as some indication of the dire straits that we are in when the current spending habits of the U.S. military exceed those at the height of the Cold War. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the United States military has an allocated 2006 budget of nearly $420 billion, not counting nondiscretionary spending and the twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Given that, we have invested more than $12 billion into a new breed of tactical nuclear weapons and $9 billion on a new missile defense system, one wonders exactly what incredible military power we are fighting.

We are taking away critical funding for basic infrastructure - such as Perkins Loans for college education - and placing it in the ever-expanding military budget. Unlike the Cold War, however, we have no reason to do so.

Osama bin Laden has stated that it is al-Qaida's intention to bleed this nation to bankruptcy. "For every $1 we spend, they spend $1 million," was the exact quote. Why, then, do we continue to invest billions of dollars into our military for such things as unusable missile defense shields and new tactical nuclear weaponry when we could save money by moving out of the Cold War mentality and using the military we have wisely? Is investing billions of dollars into a new stealth warship really more important than providing body armor to our troops in Iraq or making sure the Taliban does not return to power in Afghanistan? Does investing billions into a missile defense shield that will never be used, while critical infrastructure like the Department of Education or the Federal Transit Administration remain severely underfunded, make good fiscal sense? Must we be prepared to fight anyone, anywhere, at anytime?

Apparently, our elected and appointed leaders believe that any external threat, no matter how hypothetical, must be treated as absolutely real and be handled with a maximum of preparation.

Paranoia is a mental condition, because it can lead to harm of the self and of others. A deficit of more than $8 trillion - and growing - is an example of harm to ourselves, and senseless warmongering and the manufacture of perceived enemies around the world is an example of harm to others. It may not be obvious, but we have militarized our federal budget in order to combat imaginary threats. Am I the only one here truly worried about how wars around the globe, a national debt approaching tens of trillions and an apathetic public will affect the stability, democracy, independence and freedom of the U.S. in the next 20 years?

John Paul Gonzales

UNM student