Money spent on Iraq could help New Orleans

Perhaps the aftereffects of Katrina lend some perspective to the kinds of choices the Bush administration makes.

About 140,000 U.S. troops, including many from the National Guard, remain stalled in Iraq. More than $180 million of our tax money is spent there each day. Here at home, neglected infrastructure fails under the assault of predictable natural forces, perhaps strengthened by the ocean-heating effects of global warming. Armored Humvees and distant helicopters offer no help to those stranded on rooftops in the Gulf states. Halliburton’s logistical talents could better be used housing and feeding the tens of thousands of displaced storm victims.

What will it take to modify the fundamentally antisocial and inhumane drift of our government? We kill for democracy; we torture for freedom; we impoverish for prosperity, and we poison our own wells in the name of free enterprise.

NORMAN PALLEY

Culver City

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Bring our National Guard troops home now and have them rebuild New Orleans and take care of our homeless. Saddam Hussein is gone. The Iraqis have a constitution. It needs work. That’s what amendments are for.

Tell the Iraqis they owe us $200 billion for getting rid of Hussein, but not to worry. We’ll take an IOU and take it in oil over the next five years. Just put Halliburton in charge of collecting. It will get done. We’ll be even. Let the Iraqis live their lives as they choose. Let us rebuild one of America’s greatest cities. Let the disaster of Katrina become our exit strategy.

BOB BIEDERMAN

Irvine

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The Times printed two statistics: that experts had recommended replenishing the Louisiana coastal marshlands as a way to shore up the levees and floodwalls holding back the river and lake in event of a Category 4 or 5 hurricane for a cost that “could top $14 billion,” and a report from the Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus that estimates the cost for the war in Iraq at $5.6 billion per month. So, for about 2 1/2 months of a war with a very questionable purpose and even more questionable outcome, the disaster in New Orleans could have been averted. How many other domestic priorities will turn into tragedies before this discretionary war ends?

ROCHELLE SECHOOLER

Agoura Hills

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The areas devastated by the hurricane will need billions of dollars right away to help people and to rebuild. Where could we possibly find that kind of money in the U.S. budget? Where are we spending that kind of money on a daily basis?

NORMAN BLANCO

Fountain Valley

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These acts of nature are apocalyptic and truly scary. We must do something to counteract global warming or these acts will just get worse.

BARRY SALTZMAN

Los Angeles

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Sometimes it is hard to know whether to laugh or cry. President Bush is making a big deal about cutting his five-week vacation short because of Hurricane Katrina, as if he were expecting a round of applause for actually doing his job (Aug. 31). Then we hear him comparing his “war on terror” to World War II battles in his speech in San Diego. The mind boggles!

CAROLYN KING

Silverdale, Wash.