To the editor:

I wanted to congratulate Jim Dyment in his letter to the editor (Aug. 25 Record) for succinctly summing up the military presence on Whidbey Island and their importance for the economy.

Jim wrote, satirically referring to the benefits of military bases all over the Puget Sound region, “those airmen and soldiers are a real drag and they do not add one dime to the economy. All the Navy does in Oak Harbor is fly around and go to war, jam radars and drop bombs! What a futile bunch.”

I find it to be absolutely pathetic that “perpetual war” and its attendant militaria is an accepted business model in America. That America wastes more money and lives feeding this model is atrocious. It’s criminal. The people in America are hurting and in need of education, housing, medical care, good food, renewable energy, peace and all the other benefits that would come from a “peaceful economy.” Americans do not need more war, yet Americans accept a perpetual state of war as the real model, not peace. Americans accept the “dimes” spent in our local economy instead of questioning the profound waste of dollars and the lives of our young citizens that have come from a military/industrial/congressional complex business model like we have in America today.

The saddest part is, as Mr. Dyment’s letter shows us, America accepts this pathetic state.

I reject this notion and always will.

PEACE.

DAN FREEMAN

Clinton