I don’t understand how you can think McCain might be the lesser of three evils (Hammer, “In Defense of John McCain,” Feb. 6-13). No matter what else he might be for or against: MCCAIN WANTS WAR! His rhetoric on Iraq is even more monomaniacal than Bush. One hundred years he’s talking about in Iraq, plus Afghanistan and probably Iran.

We already have a president who can’t travel to the Netherlands for fear of being brought before the Hague. Do we need, as his successor, someone who has literally started foaming at the mouth when any mention is made of trying to end this fiasco?

How can he even try to fix the economy or any other social problems in this country while pursuing a flawed military policy that has already cost the country over $500 billion? For what just Iraq has cost us so far, the city of Indianapolis, with its share of the cost, could have financed their choice of (pick one or mix and match as you please): 268,081 people with health care, 817,808 homes with renewable electricity, 22,041 public safety officers, 14,479 music and arts teachers, 120,984 scholarships for university students, 77 new elementary schools, 9,009 affordable housing units, 428,562 children with health care, 127,626 Head Start places for children or 15,493 elementary school teachers.

Add to this the appalling cost in human life. Almost 4,000 dead U.S. troops and a suicide rate among war vets that is two to four times (depending on age bracket) more than the U.S. population as a whole.

Yes, McCain is a hero for his actions during Vietnam. I honor him for that. But ask any mental health worker if any person could have survived the war and McCain’s time as a POW without serious mental effects. It really shows when he discusses this present war.

In fact, that should be his political opponents’ rallying cry should he be on the ballot come November: John McCain Is Insane!

Fact check for this letter can be found at www.nationalpriorities.org, www.antiwar.com/casualties/ and www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml and others the readers may Google for themselves.