an old note to one of my senators about the military budget

March 12, 2002

Senator Maria Cantwell
464 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510-0001

Dear Senator Cantwell:

Re: George W. Bush’s Military Budget

I am writing to express my interest in having you vote for a complete de-funding of the US military. President Bush has proposed a budget that focuses on massive military spending increases, tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy. Furthermore he seems intent on the rape of our environment though an Energy (Abuse) Plan. The “War on Terrorism” appears to be a criminally misguided and a cynical attempt to take advantage of the September 11th tragedy to conduct the BushCheney agenda without the interference of Congress or the US public. In recent days it has come to light that The BushCheney administration has developed detailed plans for targeting nuclear weapons on Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, Libya, Syria and Russia. Apparently we are supposed to take comfort from the fact that this plan is only intended to intimidate those countries and peoples. As we are engaged in a “War on Terrorism” and our great leader has never defined the word terrorist, I went to the Oxford English Dictionary to find a definition. This is what I found: “One who favours or uses terror-inspiring methods of governing or coercing government or community”.

Well by that definition I would say that George W. Bush’s actions with regards to nuclear weapons targeting can only be described as those of a terrorist. I cannot think of anything much more terror-inspiring than knowing that large numbers of nuclear missiles are targeted at your country, and now at least 1,562 Million people on the planet are in that situation thanks to Mr. Bush.

So, as Mr. Bush is clearly acting as a terrorist and it is illegal in this country to financially support terrorists I think the time has come to cut military appropriations to a morally appropriate level of $0 for the next year (biennium, or decade for that matter). Perhaps our armed forces will complain, but I think it is clear that no other action is legal. Mr. Bush is a great proponent of volunteerism, and he can have all the volunteers he wants to carry out his illegal actions, so long as they are willing to defend their actions in court.

I can no longer support the insanity that poses as a national security policy, and I hope that you will be able to take the only sane position of de-funding the military. If you intend to support the proposed military budget could you please send me a succinct summary of your logic behind your choice? I like to explain these things to my 9-year-old son so that he is fully educated on matters of politics and morality.

Thanks for your help. Sincerely,

Nic