With this lot in power, it’s good to be grey

http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/jul/07/with-this-lot-in-power-its-good-to-be-grey

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Re Giles Fraser’s piece (Throughout history, debt and war have been constant partners, 4 July): of course President Eisenhower was right to warn against the creeping power of the military-industrial complex and we keep hoping someone will lead the west out of such madness. May I suggest “profit” could be substituted for “debt” with the same result for the citizens who are paying in every way for more and more war machines.Julia OrtmansHolt, Norfolk

• How does your claim that the US-led forces bombing Isis are “extremely careful to avoid civilian casualties” (Editorial, 3 July) sit with the October 2014 CNN report which noted that “rules meant to temper the civilian death toll from unmanned US drones won’t apply in the fight against terrorists in Iraq and Syria”?Ian SinclairLondon

• Perhaps the government would like to make the big six power companies pay the electricity and gas bills of the over-75s (BBC wins licence fee guarantee – but takes on cost of subsidising over-75s, 7 July). Now that would be a great vote-winner among the well-heeled older pensioners.David RoweNewcastle upon Tyne

• I have absolutely nothing against newly elected MP Chris Philp, whose birthday you note on 6 July (along with George W Bush and the Dalai Lama), and I have no ego in my psychological makeup, but I do feel slighted by the absence of my birthday in the list for 3 July. I’m not sure how you decide on inclusion but I can tell you that absence doesn’t half cut down on the presents.Steve Pound MPEaling North

• Re blackbirds (Letters, 7 July), we had one that used to do Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird singing in the dead of night” at 4am. Wonder which one of them thought of it first?Barry Hewlett-DaviesBrighton

• Muse’s Drones is credited on the CD sleeve as an arrangement of Palestrina (Letters, 7 July). Yes, prog is back. Alasdair McKeeLancaster