Defense Spending

Manifest Destiny is alive and well at the Rand Corp. as evidenced by Robert E. Hunter’s triumphalist blueprint for what Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refers to as the “new world order” (Commentary, Jan. 10).

“Liberal capitalism” (?) prevailed over the “radical ideologies of fascism and communism,” according to Hunter, yet the U.S. may still require a huge defense capability to keep terrorists in line and to defend against “mass destruction weapons.”

Hunter does not reveal much about the mainstay of U.S. capitalism still being a defense industry generously supported by government contracts, which undercuts the ability to assist “peoples left even further behind in the . . . new digital age.”

ANTHONY GARAVENTE

Carson