Letter: 'Get 'r done' and cut war spending

To the Editor:

I read with interest Bob Spielman's letter Nov. 26. Yes, we need to act like adults and to "Get 'r Done."

To solve our problems, we first need to put everything on the table. I am talking about our military expenditures. Why leave out something that accounts for up to 56 percent of all expenditures — wars, weapons, soldiers, nukes, VA costs, etc.?

Do you question why military expenditures continue to be untouchable? You should.

As a good capitalist you should be asking if you are getting a good return on your investment. Does our freedom come with unlimited costs? I suggest that our military spending of late has neither advanced freedom nor kept us safer. I think it has increased our misery level and divided us as a people. We let the delirium of patriotism blind us to more reasonable thinking.

If you believe all this military expense keeps us free, I disagree. What country or political faction is going to invade this country? With all the guns owned by U.S. civilians, who in their right mind would invade us?

The thing we must fear the most is a loss of freedom from within our country, which ironically is one reason we supposedly arm ourselves so much.

Yes, let us come together as adults. but we mustn’t exclude defense spending in our discussions. Let us start to seriously question our military spending and decide if we can put much (not all) of that money into rebuilding our country.

You can learn about this by checking out www.mnasap.org, which stands for Minnesota Arms Spending Alternative Project. Several communities and many organizations have endorsed this project. Red Wing should too.

If you agree with what I have written here, I encourage you to join our local Veterans for Peace chapter. You can even join as a non-veteran, as the organization accepts up to 25 percent of its membership as non-veterans.

Together we can begin to bring military costs to reasonable levels and begin to negotiate with other countries and peoples, not by threat of force, but by mutual respect and cooperation.

Bill Habedank

Red Wing

Bill Habedank is executive director Veterans for Peace, Chapter 115.

Tags: opinion, letters