U.S. Action Against Libya

We teach our children that: If a bully draws a line and says, “Cross it and I will hit you,” and you then cross that line, you can expect to get hit. Unless looking for a fight, don’t cross that line--even if the location of the line is disputed.

For the Reagan Administration, whose members so grandly manipulate the language, a definition:

provoke: 1. To incite to anger or resentment. 2. To incite to action; arouse. 3. To bring on by inciting: provoke a flight.

Our military actions are not merely childish but acrimonious and deadly. White House spokesman Larry Speakes, President Reagan, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Secretary of State George Shultz are simply lying when they say that we are not provoking Libya.

Is there no other way to deal with antagonism than with antagonism? Will this Administration still proclaim “our rights” in the Gulf of Sidra when our children’s school buses are blown up on the Main Streets of America?

SCOTT KAYE

Los Angeles