Lockheed Wins F-22 Contract

With our crushing federal deficit and ruthless cuts in programs for education, the poor, child care and the aged, it seems almost obscene that we are spending $72 billion to develop a futuristic fighter plane that has virtually no chance of ever being flown in anger against an enemy of the United States.

What future foes? The Soviet Union is in complete disarray and no longer a real threat. About the only thing the military can hope to justify its existence for is another one-sided turkey shoot like the recent war games in the Persian Gulf. Thus, these incredibly expensive planes will be nothing more than trainers until they are outmoded and turned into scrap metal.

My God, $72 billion! How many hundreds of thousands of Americans’ lives could be bettered if that were applied to their needs? The politicians and Pentagon bigwigs who pushed through this ghastly waste of taxpayer money should be lying awake nights--that is, if they have any conscience at all. I can hear them snoring in unison all the way out here in California.

CHARLES F. QUEENAN, Santa Ana