Defense Spending

* Your article “Joint Chiefs Seek More Funds to Update Arms” (Nov. 12) says the nation’s top military leaders have warned the Pentagon that it must spend more for weapon modernization or risk eroding military preparedness. But the amount of money we already spend indicates that we are far more prepared than any potential enemy.

Our current military budget is $262 billion. Russia, the second-biggest spender, will lay out about $80 billion, Japan about $42 billion, and China about $7 billion. The world’s six rogue states-- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Cuba-- have a combined annual military budget of $15 billion.

These figures indicate that the U.S. could safely divert tens of billions from military to domestic needs such as education, public health, the environment, the infrastructure and particularly job creation for hopelessly unemployed young people in our inner cities. I believe money spent on such programs would make the nation far more secure and economically sound than money wasted on modernization of submarines, fighter planes, bombers and the like.

JAMES C. MOSLEY

Laguna Hills