LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Navy commanders not to blame

OPINION:

The real culprit of the U.S. Navy’s lack of readiness isn’t in the dock (“USS Fitzgerald commander says Navy staged public smear campaign in deadly collision,” Web, May 22). It is the presidency of Barack Obama. It was the Obama administration’s penny-pinching defense budgets that created the Navy’s unpreparedness.

Mr. Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, not the unfortunate commanders who had to perform their assigned missions under duress, are really the ones who should be court-martialed.

SEYMOUR KLEIMAN

Baltimore