Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar's statement on Kashmir is disgusting. Not that I, or anyone, wants a war on Kashmir without reason but this nation has paid through its nose economically and emotionally for the Kashmir cause. We have been spending billions of dollars on our military for the last fifty years because of the Kashmir issue. If this had to be the end of our struggle, it should have been said and done forty years ago so that the money spent on the military could have been spent instead on development. Ask any economist or financial analyst that if we had spent the kind of budget we have spent on the military on our human resource development, we would have been one of the highest per capita nations in this region. Pakistan People's Party and N league have won numerous elections on the slogan of Kashmir. When will all the politicians and establishment stop making fools of this nation? This nation is hungry for food, water, electricity and essential commodities. And we refuse to be the politicians' playthings any more -M. ALI RIAZ, Lahore, via e-mail, May 10.