Don’t Cut the Spending for Our Defense System
October 23, 2012
Mr. President
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC, 20500

Dear Mr. President,

In first grade, one morning I was getting ready for school when a newscast cut off my favorite TV show to show a building in New York getting hit by a plane. I didn’t know then what was going on in our country. But every year, I understand more of the situation that the plane attack brought. Seeing panic in my mother’s eyes for the first time showed me the plane crash was not ordinary. Hearing the words “terrorist attack” scared me then. But scares me even more now. I have grown up realizing the threats other countries make against this country. This country still isn’t healed from 9/11 and more threats like that occur today. This is why our country needs to become stronger. The first step is strengthening the US defense system.

There is an increase of Anti-American rage being spread throughout other countries and is threatening to our safety. According to the Here and There article “A Conversation About Anti-Americanism” by Ed Merritt, the countries: Jordan, Palestinian Territory, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, China, Mexico, Indonesia and Germany have the highest percentages of Anti-American Rage. Hearing the news about the attack in Libya scares me and makes me think about what they are planning to do to our country. I am scared of another 9/11. I don’t think the government should lower the spending in our military. Currently, the U.S spends the most on military than any other country. According to the CNN article “Defense: $2 trillion divides Obama and Romney” by Jeanne Sahadi, America spends 20% of the federal budget on defense and war funding. It is estimated that those percentages will fall to 12% by the year 2022. Is this country safe enough from other countries that we can afford to cut the budget by that amount? No it’s not.

Some people think that if we have more military we aren’t peaceful. As said by Paul Ryan, “Do we believe in peace through military strength? You bet we do. And that means you don’t impose these devastating cuts on our military.” I think that is exactly right.
Countries like Iran, North Korea and Syria all have the materials to build nuclear weapons and those countries are Anti-American. This is a major threat to our country and the rest of the world. Who says those countries won’t act on attacking us with a nuclear weapon? If we cut spending to our defense, our country won’t be able to stop or prevent attacks.

I want to prevent events like 9/11 from happening again. The images are as clear in my head as the day it happened. A strong defense system means safety for the people in America. That should be the number one priority.

Please consider not cutting spending for our defense system. Thank you, Mr. President.

Sincerely,
Meredith K.