‘Tragedy in Persian Gulf’

American sailors died as Uncle Sucker plays sole peacemaker in the Persian Gulf while Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France and others sit on the sidelines.

Does their national security need less oil than the United States? Do they fear Soviet presence in the gulf less than the United States? If Kuwaiti tankers require foreign flags for safe passage, why cannot the flags of other nations share the burden with the United States?

If a frigate cannot defend itself, how can it fulfill its mission to protect the billion-dollar aircraft carriers now being approved?

Answers to these questions may be found in the shambles of the Reagan Mideast policy, which favors Iraq while furnishing missiles to Iran. Also, the other nations preserve their resources, knowing of the more than one trillion dollars the United States spends on the military. They know how the out-of-control U.S. military-industrial complex creates the military excesses and then must find actions to justify their existence.

Repeated efforts have been made to heed President Eisenhower’s warnings on the military-industrial complex, but the military bureaucracy and the profiteering companies have always won out. While the United States squanders its resources on nonproductive military, Japan and Germany apply theirs to industries and job-making consumer products and forcing the U.S. trade deficit to rise.

PAUL H. WANGSNESS

Burbank