The Sun Journal story “U.S. slaps Iran with sanctions” (Oct. 26) really exaggerates the threat posed by this small country far, far away. The term “vast” is used prominently in reference to its armed forces, which raises the point, when is America’s news media going to stop being a willing participant in the administration’s disinformation campaign about this country?

Iran has a population of about 71 million people and an army of 545,000. It spends about $6 billion per year on defense, or about 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product. By comparison, the United States spends more than $553 billion on defense, the highest amount on earth, which represents about 4 percent of its GDP.

To say that Iran is no threat would not be accurate; however, all of the saber-rattling and chest-thumping going on about Iran by some U.S. officials right now is frightening. A recent estimate of war expenditures, should we stay in the morass of Iraq as well as Afghanistan until 2017, is $2.4 trillion – a far cry from the $100 billion estimate the administration gave us a few years ago.

For those who think we should now invade Iran, please read the last sentence again.

Richard S. Whiting, Auburn