Dear Madame/Mr. President:

My whole life I have thought of our troops as heroes. Daily they are putting their lives in dangerous positions while risking their own lives to protect ours and our country. Only a true hero would be able to do that. Until recently I thought this was how most people viewed them. Now with the care and protection we are giving them, its hard to tell if we value their lives as much as they value ours. Troops leave the battlefield needing to have amputations, with bullet wounds, and having severe PTSD. They come home and have nowhere to live. They have no money to afford the medical care they need and deserve. The gear and equipment they have on the battlefield is outdated and old. It's no longer able to protect our troops and help them feel as safe as possible. If the budget for Military Spending continues to decrease over the next few years the safety of both our troops and our citizens will be in danger, as technology advancements increase and become more prominent in our society the weapons and gear our troops have will need to be updated. This is why I strongly urge you to focus on the military budget and where the money we have is going to.

Military budget matters to not only our troops but our citizens and our country as well. If troops lives are put in more danger than they currently are, the amount of people enrolling for the military to protect our country will continue to decrease. Families of not only our troops but everyone will be put in more danger without the necessary equipment to support our military. “If the sequestration isn’t reversed, the Army could drop to 420,000 troops from a wartime peak of 570,000.” The amount of US soldiers will continually decrease if proper technology isn’t supplied to our troops.

The care of our troops while they are fighting as well as when they come home is not sufficient. They aren’t getting the care they need, those who needed amputations aren’t getting the prosthesis needed, those with post-traumatic stress disorder aren’t getting the therapy or help they need. When they come home, instead of coming home to a family and house, many end up on the streets, homeless and hungry. After all the time they spent fighting and protecting our country, they come back to have nothing. “The number of suicides among troops was 145 in 2001 and began a steady increase until more than doubling to 321 in 2012, the worst year in recent history for service members killing themselves.”

Many people argue that we should not be supporting and funding something that kills other people. Military is about killing and hurting other people and they don’t want to fund something so gruesome and bad. But what they aren't thinking about is what our country would be like without the military. No one would be safe without these men and women fighting for our country. No one would have the rights they do.

With the military being so crucial for the safety of our country, we should be putting as much money as needed into supporting it. Not only the weapons and equipment itself but the men and women too and whatever they need to be healthy and prosper. This is why I believe you should focus heavily on the military budget.

Sincerely,

Shannon