Letter: Administration out of control with its budget

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2002 | 8:59 a.m.

The compassion we feel for the innocent victims of 9-11 can be expanded to include all the innocents of all terrorism, in all fronts, any time, whether committed by Middle-Easterners or our own politicians.

Instead of the "leaner, meaner, more capable military" -- a "transformation" promised by President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- a red, white and blue $400 billion budget for "defense" has been sent to Congress!

Are we going to challenge all the world's powers? If not, why do we need this obscene military outlay? This is an administration out of control. Pugnacious Bush has allowed his mouth to overload his backside a number of times, retracts with a "never mind" and with the aid of all the initials at his disposal can't find bin Laden nor the kidnapped Daniel Pearl. Just incidentally, those initials have a budget so astronomical the amount is classified.

Would Americans reconsider their support of Bush's "war" if, instead of constant reminders of "patriotism" and the need to get bin Laden "dead or alive," they could see the real human beings that have died under our bombs? The magnitude of human suffering caused by this war is incomprehensible because it's not shown on the news.

Continuing the indiscriminate bombing of the few rocks left in Afghanistan won't end terrorism and is, in itself, the worst kind of terrorism.

I, for one, am thankful that I can think for myself, at least beyond what this government wants me to think. I don't believe America is totally innocent nor that our present aims are totally pure. I do think this administration has shown a reckless disregard for human life.

Two wrongs don't make one right, and I'm sure that God loves Afghans as much as He loves Americans.

VIVIEN CARDINAL