Reply #20: I've waited until today to respond to your post, reorg

[5thGenDemocrat]

I, like you probably, think the military has entirely too large a budget. We spend something like $1.2 billion a DAY on "defense" and, as a veteran, I am all too aware that much of it simply disappears down a rathole or, worse, into the pockets of military contractors for gee-whiz projects and into pork for favored congressional districts.
I don't know what the USS Abraham Lincoln cost to build, but it was assuredly a heaping buttload. Nuclear aircraft carriers are among the most expensive items on our military shopping list.
That said...
The Lincoln carries aboard a number of water desalination and purification plants that produce literally tens of thousands of gallons of absolutely pure water daily (cleaner than you get out of your tap). This water is used to cool the reactors or, in this case, can keep thousands of innocents from dying through the simple expedient of dehydration.
These plants are enormously expensive, as you might suppose. Thus, when I, too, find myself ranting about what it is that the military does, exactly, and why it costs so goddamned much money -- I would prefer that the answer is "we are saving human lives" as opposed to "getting the ragheads."
I'd say the same about the helicopters deployed aboard the Lincoln. Expensive, yes. But just as capable of saving lives as of taking them. And, since they're going to fly and since it costs money whether they fly for purposes of destruction and death or, as here, for reasons of humanitarianism and life (or whether they don't fly at all), I say get 'em up and send us the bill.
I doubt very much that the Lieutenant Commander is writing his letter for propaganda purposes. I suspect he is proud of this particular mission and of the men and women performing it. Saving precious life is the very highest calling any of us can ever aspire to. So he should be proud and I'm proud of these sailors and soldiers, too. I suspect most posters here, present company excluded, are as well.
John
My wise ol' grandma used to say "There's so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it don't behoove none of us to talk about the rest of us." I hope you have a wise ol' grandma, too.