Editor, The American people do not want to spend any more of our blood and money for someone else’s problem. Unfortunately our body politic doesn’t agree. I am still hearing the push for combat troops to be sent to the Middle East. That would be those troops who did not get a COLA raise in this budget because our government can’t afford it.

The argument for increased U.S. involvement in the problems of the Middle East is totally based on the premise that defeat of ISIS on the battlefields in Syria and Iraq will defeat terrorism here. That premise is absolutely wrong.

There are approximately 13 countries in the Middle East that can field over 4 million troops under three modern air forces. There are less than a hundred thousand ISIS savages. The Middle Eastern countries can’t set aside their centuries-old conflicts between tribes and religious sects long enough to resolve a common problem. They won’t until it becomes a last option. That last option occurs when the U.S. turns off the spigot of American blood and money.

Closing our borders and the immediate destruction of the Syrian oil fields are paramount to defeating terrorism here. Neither is being done. Political correctness and personal greed within our ranks are to blame. The industrial/military complex is a multitrillion-dollar business. Read Gen. Eisenhower’s concerns about it and the pressure to take this country to war.

I support an immeasurably strong military, but let us spend our rounds on the firing range until the nation really is threatened. That threat won’t come from a ragtag army of savages 5,000 miles away. It will come from a sovereign nation with the manufacturing and financial strength to try to crush us militarily and financially.

We are distracted.
 
Roy Hubbard
Richmond Hill