Terry Fralich (“Letter to the editor: U.S. defense spending is out of proportion,” March 16)  is deeply mistaken on the importance of the current defense spending by America.

That the “official Chinese defense budget for 2020” is $178 billion (as reported by USA Today journalist Kim Hjelmgaard and mentioned by Mr. Fralich) lacks credibility to me.

America is under constant cyber attack by China. Imagine no electricity for days or months.

Forty percent to 45 percent of the penicillin imported to America is made in China. How long would it take to ramp up American production?

There are only six shipping lanes between Saudi Arabia and Japan. China can collapse Japan’s and Korea’s economies by shutting off oil imports if we let them control the oceans.

China can block exports and imports for America if we cede controls of the shipping lanes to China.

Ninety-seven percent of all rare earth elements are located in China, according to PBS’ “NOVA.” We need rare earths for computers and cellphones.

If China controls the oceans, all the things we take for granted will disappear in an instant.

Lastly, we are destroying the value of the U.S. dollar by excessive debt. The difference between Monopoly money and a dollar bill is the quality of the paper it is printed on (dollar bills are printed on cloth).

America is bankrupt, we just haven’t filed the paperwork with the courts yet.

Michael Doyle
Portsmouth, N.H.

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