Indiana’s 5th Congressional District (INCD5) is viewed as “flippable” by both major political parties. Victoria Spartz spent a ton of money to buy the June 2 GOP primary. Ms Spartz’s stand on one set of issues is particularly troubling.

From Ms. Spartz’s website, under “National Defense and Military”: “A strong national defense is one of the main functions of the federal government. We must keep our military strong and provide better services to our veterans.”

A good first step in building and keeping a strong defense is not to kill members of the United States military. As we have learned with the revelations of the past several days, Putin offered a bounty of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) to the Taliban for each G.I. killed.

This as trump was trying to regain membership in the G7 for Russia (a/k/a Putin). As the land of the free, we are not supposed to do favors for a murderer like Putin. In this case he has shifted his aim from his own people to our military personnel. Ms. Spartz supports trump.

Disconcerting is what we have done to this country: we are militarized. Commercials seek to recruit our youth with (1) No mention of whether we should have committed troops to the many places the USA has military personnel stationed and

(2) No mention of the implicit - Want college without $250K of lifelong debt undischargable in bankruptcy? Enlist. You’ll be one of those nifty players in video games or in the movies or the TV shows you’ve watched all your life.

When we indoctrinate our children in war, we have a growing militaristic culture. This has not made us more secure. We spend more money on weaponry and personnel than the next seven biggest spenders.

According to the Peter G. Petersen Foundation, our military budget accounts for thirty-seven percent (37%) of the World’s total military expenditures. This attempt to allay insecurities has caused us to be more insecure.

Our drone attacks of people half-way around the World have only an accuracy of five percent (5%). Those attacks result in 95% “collateral” damage. No matter the accuracy - or inaccuracy - of our weapons, we kill people.

When we kill people - by mistake or negligence - other people in that country, and around the World, bear hatred for us while our youth develop a siege mentality. As we know now, our armed forces are used cynically.

Putin pays to put a “button” on each of them and - who cares? trump does not care. His only concerns are self-aggrandizement and survival - i.e., currying the favor of Putin. The Framers were concerned about standing armies.

Our police, too, are militarized. It is difficult to avoid that reality. Ms Spartz would continue this culture, retrograde to Sparta. The Peloponnesian War pitted the war-like authoritiarian Sparta against the democracy-loving Athenians. Both sides lost, in the long run.

Ms. Spartz is not qualified to hold the office she seeks. She follows and blindly supports trump. I am a pro-choice, pro-environment, anti-trump GOP precinct committee person. Any candidate - including Ms. Spartz - for political office who supports trump is unfit.