This article is in response to the February 23 piece entitled “Analyze it, don’t criticize it: Bush’s military spending proposal is better than you might expect.”I appreciate the concern for the honest portrayal of Bush’s policies. Too often truth is diluted by ideology. We should not assume unless we know the information. However, the inspection into the subject lacks analysis and correct information.

The article calls for more military. Yet, there is a failure to give evidence in support of Bush’s spending proposal, which is never analyzed.

The website http://www.cdi.org/issues/usmi/highlightsFY01.html gives a clear understanding of the proposal. This includes 1.9 billion for the Star Wars defense system, an additional 2 billion for operations in Southwest Asia, 60.3 billion for new weapons, and many more facts. According to the projected figures for 2002 in the “Analytical Perspectives” book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2001, 672 billion dollars are being spent on the military. Of the total budget of 1438 billion, almost HALF funds the military.
Our seven potential enemies, including Russia and China, spend 106 billion dollars combined on defense. And the richest nation in the world spends half of its tax dollars on the military.

The military is over- funded. George Bush over-emphasizes its importance. Why do we need a stronger military when we have, as the article says, “the strongest army in the world.”

The article affirms this, by stating that the Russian army consists of “about three dozen soldiers, four cases of Absolut, and three potato guns.” This xenophobic viewpoint horrifies me. It further casts other people as inhuman and enemies.

We must honestly engage the truth about our military spending. The immense amount of resources being spent upon destructive aggression is absurd. We must change our ways.