Andrew Yarrow’s column, “Early retirement is unpatriotic” (BDN, April 8), says that retiring at 55, 62 or even 65 is “profoundly selfish and unpatriotic.” He adds that if Americans retired later, “we significantly could slow the growth of our multitrillion-dollar national debt, which largely is driven by rising Medicare and Social Security costs.”

Yarrow has overlooked important facts. The growth of our national debt is in considerable part due to our gargantuan military budget: U.S. annual military expenditures are greater than those of all other nations combined, according to the Center for Defense Information. Rep. Tom Allen says we are using money borrowed from other countries to fight the war in Iraq. Furthermore, successive Congresses and presidents have been borrowing money from the Social Security Trust Fund for most of the last 25 years to pay for the military and other government programs.

Another essential fact about our increasing national debt is that Congress and President Bush have greatly lowered income taxes on the wealthy, and this in wartime.

A final comment: I was already retired before age 65 after more than 600 rejections for a variety of jobs over a 30-year period (many of them jobs for which I was amply qualified). I resent Yarrow’s idea that I should have gone out and applied for more.

Karl K. Norton

Bangor