END THREE 'WARS' AND SAVE A BUNDLE

The conservative lament these days is a worry that we may be sliding
into socialism. Perhaps. It is a greedy few who hijacked capitalism
for their own huge benefit and spoiled it for the rest; e.g. Bernie
Madoff, war-profiteers.

Taxes are necessary, even in a dysfunctional political environment.
Instead of raising taxes to pay for health-care reform and growing
entitlements, I propose cutting some major expenses. We are
prosecuting at least three wars and letting the
military-industrial-banking-congressional
complex grow unchecked:

. Afghanistan. No country has ever conquered this sovereign nation. We
are tossing good money after bad in chasing the stateless Al-Qaida
into Pakistan.

. Iraq. Like Vietnam, this war was lost in the first year. It is a
quagmire that has a promised but doubtful end date. Declare victory
and get out.

. Drugs. This decades-old conflict was lost before it ever started.
Our prisons are full and the majority drug-related. The politically
difficult decision to make marijuana legal but taxed heavily would cut
costs and bring tax revenue into our public coffers.

If these wars end soon, we could largely fund Social Security,
education and mitigate climate change which is the ultimate
health-care reform. And, we could justify a real tax cut.

Douglas D. Troxel

Holualoa