The Cost of War

To the Editor (of the Walpole Times),

After reading Jeffrey Symanski’s letter last week about the need for more money for our schools, I felt compelled to write about one area that is a major cause of the shortage of money in Walpole, namely, the military spending of the U.S. government. The Pentagon currently has a $460 billion budget. With a population of 300 million, that breaks down to $1,533 per person in taxes. For simplicity’s sake, that equals $6,132 for a family of 4 and using a rough figure of 25,000 for the population of Walpole this equals about $39 million that the people of Walpole pay towards our military budget. If you add in the cost of the Iraq war at about $100 billion a year that equals about $8 million more that the people of Walpole are paying towards the military budget. If you factor in the military’s portion of the budget that goes to pay the interest on our debt then there is another $5 million that all of us in Walpole are paying. If you add all of the above, the people of Walpole are paying about $52 million a year on our military.

According to Truemajority.org, there are many former Admirals, Generals and Pentagon officials who agree that we could safely cut the Pentagon’s budget by 13% or $60 billion. This would be a savings of $5 million a year for the people of Walpole and if we weren’t bogged down in Iraq, we would be saving another $8 million. If we had $13 million staying in Walpole, I don’t think we would have any trouble funding our schools or any of the other needs of our town.

To put this military spending in perspective, the United States represents less than 5% of the world’s population but the pentagon’s budget represents about 50% of all the military spending in the world!

The following quote by James Madison, our fourth president, best sums up what is at stake as far as our country’s future is concerned if we don’t get this military spending under control: “Of all the enemies of liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies: from these proceed debts and taxes ….. known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few …… No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

There are very powerful interests who are making billions in profits off of our war-like military budget while people in communities like Walpole fight amongst themselves to meet their basic needs.

Paul Peckham
Dec. 18, 2006