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LETTERS IN THE EDITORS MAILBAG.

Article Excerpt
Byline: The Register-Guard

Defense budget bleeds treasury

Today, many stalwart financial institutions are in deep trouble and millions of Americans have no health care or even homes.

Our deficit is almost the same as our military budget, and we fund 700 military bases outside our land. These items are totally connected - yet not one politician has had enough courage to say so.

A country cannot run an empire on borrowed money (just ask Enron). If we were to say "do as we wish or we'll bomb you," others would say, "bomb us and we won't lend you money any more." When will we admit that creating the most powerful military in the world is pretty much like pouring money down the drain? Most other countries have already discovered this.

President Dwight Eisenhower said every dollar spent on military might is a dollar not spent on the needs of the people. An even more succinct version is the old "guns or butter" principle of economics. The Soviet Union gave up the Cold War when it realized it was going broke. Now our country is broke also.

Of course we need some defense, but what we have is way beyond that. Personally, I'd rather have free health care than 5,000 nukes pointed at no one and everyone.

Charles Roehrich

Eugene

No liberal talk radio options here

Raye Gunter's Sept. 16 letter refers to this paper as the "Red Guard" and laments...

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