Reagan’s Dealing With Iran

The caprices of the Reagan Administration have made the world of Alice’s Wonderland seem like a model of reason and order. Your editorial (Nov. 11), “Picking Up the Pieces,” has cast a clear light on the Administration’s ineptitude in dealing with the hostage crisis. Anyone who has not read it should.

I would like to comment on one sentence in your statement: “At best, the equipment (spare parts and weapons that have been delivered to Iran) only gives Iran the chance to further prolong a war that has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives.” You say this is not the real point of the problem. I can’t imagine a point more real than this.

The President’s recent actions in negotiating with Iran will result in the deaths of untold numbers of Iraqi and Iranian soldiers, each of whom is as precious to his family as American hostages are to theirs. Aside from all the other miscalculations involved in this fiasco, the callous lack of concern for human life demonstrated by this Administration appalls me.

I don’t doubt that if my son were a hostage anywhere in the world, I would bless any move that might bring him home, and I joined the thousands of television viewers who were moved to tears by the sight of David Jacobsen’s being reunited with his family. But our desire to see our hostages safe does not justify our fueling a war to gain a short-term political advantage.

DAN CHASMAN

Los Angeles