Hooked on war

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letters: News in letters published 30/01/2010
Readers’ Letters and Opinions

letters@dailystar.com.lb

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Compiled by Daily Star staff
“Afghanistan allies back Taliban
reconciliation efforts”
January 26, 2010

Yes, America is hooked on war, and although
some Americans might not realize that, you can be sure that the rest of the world does, as it looks at Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places around the world where the United States has fought wars, threatened to fight wars, sent armed forces, or launched missiles in their stead.
America spends more on its military budget than most of the rest of the nations of the world combined, and yet many Americans would tell you that the United States is a peace-loving nation that only goes to war to bring about peace, and that only uses its military to keep the peace.
It’s like the novelist George Orwell said: “War is peace” to them.
More than that, though, war is profit to many US weapons makers and manufacturers, who make enormous amounts of money selling arms and material not only to the US government but to many others around the world.
War is also power and influence to the US government. With the most powerful military in the world, it can intimidate others and get its own way a lot of the time, politically, economically, or in other ways that benefit US interests and allies.
However, like many great nations and empires of the past, America has overextended herself.
Her armies have gotten bogged down abroad while her economy and infrastructure at home are crumbling. In the past, America’s answer to this sort of problem has been more war, not less.
It will be interesting to see what she does this time.

Ted Rudow III, MA
Menlo Park, United States

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