Maybe they’re right on defense

Re “Allies on the cheap,” Opinion, Feb. 28

Max Boot’s paean to America’s bloated defense budget overlooks one important fact as it pummels our allies for not ponying up billions more to help us in our overseas adventures: The taxpayer money we flush down the drain through waste, fraud and war profiteering adds up to more than most of our NATO friends spend in the first place. Perhaps we should follow their example rather than they ours.

STEPHEN LEE

La Habra

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It’s always amazing to me to hear an intelligent, articulate, rational person come to an absurd conclusion. This usually results because he has started with an incorrect premise.

Boot argues that our NATO allies should spend a greater percentage of gross domestic product on their military so that they can better engage in war. I would argue that the U.S. should spend more on healthcare, education and infrastructure, less on the military and refrain from invading countries whose leaders we dislike but pose no immediate threat to us.

Lest we forget, it’s the Department of Defense, not the Department of Offense.

PAUL MOSER III

Studio City

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Boot thinks that our allies don’t spend enough on their military to be much help in our war efforts. Is it possible that if your best tool is a gun, every problem looks like a target?

MIKE AMBROSE

Thousand Oaks