I voted for Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett. Budgets are tight, and he’s doing his best.

In early October 2011, a majority of county council members favored a proposed nonbinding resolution: the federal government should spend our tax dollars on the needs of ordinary Americans, not wars. It seemed rather milquetoast.

Leggett however, said that the peace resolution was “a dagger pointed directly at the heart of Montgomery County.” So, the motion was tabled. I wondered how to respond, but the news that week wrote a response for me:

ź Lockheed Martin’s lobbyist called Gov. Martin O’Malley, U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen and Leggett to remind them that it employs 5,200 people in Montgomery County.

ź George Will echoed rumors that Lockheed Martin could, if this peace nonsense continued, move its headquarters to Virginia.

ź Iraq (where 4,282-plus U.S. soldiers have died “fighting for freedom”) gave “key moral and financial support” to the dictator of Syria.

ź Occupy Wall Street sister demonstrations sprouted in U.S. cities.

ź CIA-sponsored thugs have so destabilized Somalia that radical militant Islamists are seizing control.

ź Finally, “The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $1.7 trillion is needed between now and 2020 to rebuild roads, bridges, waterlines, sewage systems, and dams that are reaching the end of their planned life cycles.” The Urban Institute estimates $2 trillion — numbers so huge the public can hardly comprehend it all.

Don’t we need Lockheed Martin’s F-35s to “protect our freedoms?” On Sept. 11, 2001, all of our ICBMs, jets, tanks, ships and submarines were useless. The retired, high-ranking U.S. military officers who advise the World Security Institute will tell you honestly that our arsenal secures resources and protects U.S. business interests, not our civil liberties. As President George W. Bush proudly stated in 2002, “We are an empire.”

An earlier president, Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower, warned about the military-industrial complex. Under perpetual war, U.S. presidents will be claiming the right to “disappear,” torture and even kill a U.S. citizen without first holding a trial. Oops — that’s already happened under Bush-Obama. Did anyone notice? Has freedom’s experiment ended so soon?

Why can’t our elected leaders work on economic conversion? Lockheed Martin can reclaim urban drinking water systems, transportation systems, bridges, dams, waterways, schools, urban centers, public parks, and coastal estuaries? Returning veterans can construct regional clean energy systems — solar, geothermal, wind, wave and tide. Lockheed Martin has large civilian projects ongoing. Let that side of the business grow.

With assistance from the Project on Government Oversight, we’ll also help Lockheed Martin executives kick an addiction to contract fraud.

These proposals might seem arrogant and foolish. But compare them to the fantasy of conjuring prosperity and freedom from perpetual war. Which is dream is crazier?

I have friends and neighbors who work for Lockheed Martin. We play tennis, worship and attend town hall meetings together. Maybe we can engage in a conversation, including the voice of James Madison, who said, “Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

Steven Sellers Lapham, Gaithersburg

The writer is a member of Peace Action Montgomery, an anti-war advocacy group.