Military monies

Recently, an article in the Huffington Post (posted Oct. 20) caught my attention because of its relevance to our county's decision to accept or reject a National Security Training Center.

The report, written by Jo Comerford, summarizes the National Priorities Project's research on American military spending over the past two decades.

It indicates that the U.S. Department of Defense spends as much as the next 14 countries combined on the military, and according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 55 percent of next year's discretionary spending will go to the military.

The United States has already used $915.1 billion in total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending.

At this point, I want to ask my fellow citizens: At what cost? This much money could have been used to hire 15 million teachers or police officers or could have supported 171 million college student tuitions.

This kind of money is also close to the projected amount it may take to spend on a decade of health care.

According to the article, the combined total 2010 budget deficits in all 48 states doesn't come close to the projected U.S. military spending for the same year.

To put it another way, 37.4 cents of every tax dollar goes toward the military, whereas only 2.8 cents of every tax dollar is dedicated to energy, environment and science combined.

This trend is expected to continue, according to the Department of Defense projections; the baseline military budget (not including war spending) is expected to increase by 2.5 percent each year for a decade.

Eric Britt
Lake Placid