Pentagon needs to change its ways

Re “Army Warns Rumsfeld It’s Billions Short,” Sept. 25

President Bush and Congress need to roll back the tax cuts of the last six years; kill the ridiculous missile defense program and give its billions of dollars to the Army, and stop trying to hide the cost of the Iraq disaster in emergency spending bills. Make a realistic budget for it and accept that we need to finance it.

ALEX MURRAY

Altadena

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Re “Deployment Math Tests the Military,” Sept. 21

The Times reports that our military forces are stretched almost to the breaking point. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is in large part responsible for the force structure and the conduct of the Iraq war. Any self-respecting corporation whose CEO had committed so many egregious mistakes would have long since handed him his golden parachute and told him to jump. I respectfully submit that Rumsfeld return to whatever he was doing before the Peter Principle took effect.

W.L. SIBLEY

Northridge