If the Portland Press Herald is going to give unwarranted publicity to the Zumwalt “stealth” destroyer, at least balance it by making a few comparisons to what $4.3 billion might have done for the nation, and/or the state.

Where to start? Money to spend on drug addiction programs? Highways, and bridges? Health care? Education, at all levels? Space exploration – no, they have their own billions to spend.

You get the point. Will it protect us? Maybe. Any weapon system can be defeated. There are too many examples to list. One system leap-frogs the next. It only took a small motor boat to almost destroy the USS Cole. Who could have imagined? Apparently, not the Navy. I hope someone takes a page from Strategic Air Command Gen. Curtis Lemay’s playbook, poking at the soft underbelly of the Zumwalt’s systems to find possible weaknesses.

That’s a lot to spend on a “maybe” for protection.

William R. Laidley

South Portland

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