‘Tragedy in Persian Gulf’

The more things go around, the more they come around! For almost 50 years the officer mentality in our armed forces has always been, “they’d never dare attack us” and “gee whiz, they hit us when we weren’t ready.” Pearl Harbor, the Marine barracks in Lebanon, our communications spy ship in the Mediterranean (also Korea) and now the Stark. How can this longtime mind-set be changed?

JOHN P. ANDREWS

Palos Verdes Peninsula