$200 billion badly spent

Re “Budget for war jumps in 2008,” Sept. 22

Rebuffing the popular vote, Congress will almost certainly approve the White House demand for the all-time high of $200 billion in war spending for 2008. And this is before the possible war with Iran -- being goaded, as we speak, by the same neoconservatives and the Israeli lobby that dragged us into the war in Iraq in 2003. Just as the Soviet Union destroyed itself under the weight of its arms buildup, so will America collapse because of the looting of its exchequer by war profiteers, unless the patriotic antiwar movement is able to save America from that doom.

Omar Huda

Granada Hills

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For most people, $200 billion is just a big number, so it may be useful to put it into a relevant perspective. If $200 billion were spent on high-cost alternative energy or on energy savings, such as plug-in hybrids or higher mileage standards, that would generate an energy equivalent of the Iraq oil output, with very small operating and maintenance costs. With what we have spent on this war, we could be well on our way to energy independence, and the price of oil could be crashing. With low oil prices, Middle Eastern governments wouldn’t be buying influence around the world and exporting terrorism; they would be too busy providing for their rapidly growing populations.

Dallas E. Weaver

Huntington Beach

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While President Bush is demanding this massive amount to “support our troops,” I hope Congress will investigate closely how much of that $200 billion is intended for private, for-profit contractors like Blackwater USA. I also hope they will compare this number to the amount Bush is requesting for veterans’ healthcare for our wounded men and women in uniform.

Lee Aydelotte

Huntington Beach

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We cannot afford national healthcare or free higher education, but we can afford to spend $200 billion to further destroy a nation we invaded without cause. Is it me, or is there something wrong with this picture?

Richard P. McDonough

Irvine

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Every effort of the Democratic Party to stop, or even slow, the butchery in Iraq has been strangled by the Republican Party’s senators. No amount of reasoning appeals to them. And now my grandson is about to be sent back there. This dreadful war was launched with great hubris and an avalanche of lies by members of the Bush administration. The lies have not stopped, and now the war is finally opposed by a clear majority of Americans. We must do whatever we can to stop the destruction of human life, the looting of the U.S. Treasury, the destruction of American democracy and the distortion of our role in the civilized world.

Jim Haynie

Malibu