Letters: Romney on military power

Re “Don’t trim military, Romney warns,� May 29

The observation that neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney served in the military during the Vietnam War is unfair to Romney.

Romney, who said in the 2008 campaign that he wished he had spent some time in the military, had legitimate excuses for not serving his country. As The Times pointed out, he was excused to attend college at Stanford and Brigham Young University and to spend 21/2 difficult years in France attempting to convert Christians to the Mormon religion. Finally, he was exempt as a married man and a father.

Obama, on the other hand, had none of these excuses for not serving in the military. Unlike Romney, he was not a college student, a missionary in France or a parent. The only excuse his defenders can come up with to explain his non-service is that he was 13 years old when the war ended in 1975.

Owen Keavney

Claremont

Romney argues that the United States must increase military spending, “not just so that we can win wars but so we can prevent wars.�

Actually, our military spending did not prevent our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; rather, it made them possible.

Further, I guess Romney has not noticed that we have not won these wars despite huge outlays of money and a terrible loss in lives.

Mark Smith

Bakersfield

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