As a veteran of the U.S. Army, Airborne Infantry, I am somewhat confused about George Bush’s claims to be strong on defense and experienced in foreign policy. Was it experience or a desire to be strong, that motivated this administration to send 241 Marines to their deaths, virtually unarmed in a war zone? Was it experience or strength that allowed 248 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division to die because there was no room in a trillion dollar defense budget for a reliable aircraft to bring these men home for Christmas from the Saini? Was it a demonstration of experience or strength when 37 men aboard the USS Stark were killed in a war zone with no air cover or defense systems turned on? Was this country made any stronger when this administration wasted billions of dollars on the Sgt. York, the B_1 bomber, the Bradley fighting vehicle and of course SDI?

The hostages taken during the Carter administration came home safe, without giving away weapons, military intelligence, cakes or autographed Bibles.

How unusual that Bush should forget the date of the Pearl Harbor attack, after this administration has so neatly replicated Dec. 7, 1941, in Beirut and in the Persian Gulf. How unusual that Bush should call Mike Dukakis a free spender, when this administration has poured billions of dollars into propping up an expanding, corrupt and greedy military industrial complex.

As a veteran and an American, I could never vote for George Bush, not even for a thousand points of light.

William J. Gannon

Card carrying member of the Young Democrats