1) They provide business for weapons manufacturers. Every bomb, bullet, and missile expended, every truck blown up, must be replaced.

2) They provide employment for weapons factory workers AND for soldiers.

3) They provide a reason for maintaining the grossly over-bloated American military establishment.

4) They are supposed to showcase the superiority of our awesomely powerful high tech weapons.

5) As the article indicated, they define the frontiers of the American Empire by holding or extending territory.

The stated justifications for involvement in these conflicts are usually flimsy at best and some are ultimately revealed to be untrue. Witness the "Gulf of Tonkin Incidnet" and Saddam Hussein's "Weapons of Mass Destruction". Interestingly enough, the FBI's warrant for Osama Bin Laden's arrest does not include conspiracy related to 9/11. We don't have enough evidence to convict him of this charge in a court of law, but we have enough to launch an eight year, $200+ billion war against the people of Afghanistan.

The fact is that while we congratulate ourselves by conducting a video game war with drones, real people with real relatives are really bleeding and dying on the other side of the planet. Every Afghan killed, either as an indigenous fighter for faith and country or as an innocent civilian, engenders increased hostility against America, assuring the perpetuation of war. While this may serve the purposes of the those who profit thereby, it is ethically wrong and needs to be stopped. Only a moral cretin could rejoice at the wanton destruction being visited on Afghanistan at great expense to ourselves for reasons that cannot be rationally justified.

I'm a little distressed to see the degree of political polarization expressed by both the Tea Baggers and many Salon letter writers. It's true that a lot of what the Tea Baggers are protesting is fiction, but some is not. The people I met during the time I was involved in promoting the Ron Paul campaign are concerned over some of the same issues that motivate the Left: warrantless wiretapping, the Real ID Act, the wasting 100's of billions of dollars on wars on the other side of the planet to no rational purpose, etc. In their own way, they, too, are aspiring to a better future. Their disaffection is, however, too frequently channeled into promotion of causes or personalities more likely to enhance the already near-monopoly of resources and power that wealthy elites exercise over the vast majority. My suggestion is to find an issue of common concern and work with them rather than serving the aforementioned elites by slinging back the same fecal matter they've just lobbed over.

The new letter format is so atrocious I am going to protest by boycotting not only writing, but also even reading, letters. In fact I am going to stop even visiting Salon altogether, but will check back every week or so to see if the old format has been restored. After a month of this I may have broken my Salon addiction altogether. I'll find some other webzine where convenience to the readers and contributors is respected.

It's been an interesting few years, but I won't miss the omnipresent Netflix popups or any of the spyware infesting this site. So long for now!

The every seven minute refresh of the main page. Anyone who is on dialup like I am knows how it monopolizes precious bandwidth, interfering with the ability to download anything else. Seriously, there is no conceivable reason to refresh the main page so often and every reason for those connected by dialup to resent the interference.

I love this original letter format! Keep it!

Let's start over and this time do it right. Forget about the private insurance companies. They've had their chance to "reform" their methods and chose the low road of quick profits over any ethical considerations. They are the bad guys whose delinquent behavior has necessitated tackling this issue in the first place.

The United States actually has world-class scholars at major universities who have spent their professional lives studying the economics of medical insurance: how to deliver the maximum amount of benefit at the lowest cost, something the "free market" is supposed to provide, but somehow fails miserably to do. Some of these scholars have literally designed successfully operating insurance systems for other countries. Why not use true expertise instead of enduring more epithet-yelling boors and more bought-and-sold politicians? Let's hear what the experts have to say.

From what little I have heard thus far, the Single-Payer system trumps all competition for frugality and service. This time let's give it a fair hearing.

Rather than continue to curse the darkness, take the first step toward restoring the government's original mission of serving the interests of the people. And that first step is to remove corporations from their legal status as "persons". Under current law and court rulings, corporations enjoy all the rights of persons without any of the liabilities, and have used that status to gain control of the government to further their own interests. As corporations were originally chartered with a limited field of endeavor and subject to periodic review and charter cancellation, they were useful instruments in economic development. However, once they became free of these legal constraints and became persons, they increased in size, power, and influence until they literally control the media, the Congress, the President, and the Courts.

If necessary, let's get a constitutional amendment that specifically prohibits corporations from enjoying the rights of citizens, once again limits their activities, and makes their charters subject to periodic review and renewal, with continual oversight by an independent body with powers of suspension and revocation.

I don't think anything less than this will ever end the overbloated military and arms industries and the squandering of resources on programs often contrary to the public weal.