Will militarists determine our future?

Editor,

John Kenneth Galbraith, respected author, ambassador to India, and director for overall effects of the United States strategic bombing survey (USBUS) after WWII, plus a similar job in Vietnam, equates "the gravely disappointing strategic bombing of German industry, transportation and cities and misadventure in Vietnam" to Iraq.

"Even though," he says, "those findings of his large professional economic staff's assessment of the industrial and military effects of the German bombing runs were vigorously resisted by the Allied armed services, in the cities the random cruelty and death inflicted from the sky had no appreciable effect on war production or the war."

A couple of facts: In 2003, close to half the total U.S. government discretionary expenditure was for military purposes. Corporate power is a driving force behind U.S. foreign policy in places like Iraq.

And did you know this bit of news? The U.S. Navy announced (with minimal coverage in the U.S. press) that from mid-July through August it would hold exercises dubbed "Operation Summer Pulse '04" in waters off the China coast near Taiwan … the first time in U.S. naval history that seven of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same time.

China is very concerned and building militarily to try to meet this perceived threat. China is a powerful threat to U.S. economic dominance in the world with a growth rate of 9.1 percent last year. Are we to allow the militarists, beholden to large corporate interests, determine our future? I would hope not!

We have some very dangerously aggressive Pentagon military policies being pushed in the name of corporate power and profits, and they are not working in the best interests of "we the people."

We need to be alert. We need to ask the hard questions. We need to look for ways to cooperate and benefit with shifting economic power in the world and at the same time advocate for more sensible, reasonable and effective ways to meet the rising tide of international terrorism.

Bob McClellan

Polson