Cut defense spending

Hunter Abell’s op-ed of Sept. 24 (“Heed Jackson on military”) contains the same tired and typical “sky-is-falling” rhetoric we’ve become accustomed to for the past 13 years, arguing any cuts in the defense budget are indefensible and a threat to national security.

What Mr. Abell failed to acknowledge is the following: We are now in the 13th consecutive year of growth of our baseline defense budget - the longest period of sustained growth in military spending in U.S. history, including World War II and the entire Cold War period when we were faced with arguably serious threats.

Abell claims we must sustain our ability to fight two wars simultaneously across the globe. Why? To fend off a small and badly deteriorating group of fanatics whose ability to threaten grows increasingly weaker while lacking widespread public support?

Waving the newest red flag, Abell warns us of China’s impending threat on the horizon. Meanwhile the Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute reports that China was in fact second in the world to the U.S. in military spending in 2010. While the U.S. is responsible for 43 percent of the world’s military spending China’s constitutes 7.3 percent.

One must wonder why defense spending cuts shouldn’t be on the table.

Tom Webb

Spokane