Hostilities in Persian Gulf
President Reagan must heed the provisions of the War Powers Act in regards to the current Persian Gulf engagement. The act specifies that the President must report to Congress in 48 hours when U.S. servicemen face imminent hostilities. The President holds the ludicrous position that despite two heavily damaged ships, several dozen casualties and several shooting incidents that U.S. forces do not face imminent hostilities.
The President must respond to congressional queries if not to accede to what he claims is congressional meddling in executive affairs, then at least to inform the American populace of the scope and propriety of this controversial undertaking.
The President must cease to entangle the U.S. in foreign squabbles beyond our control by dispatching the Navy as if it were a bathtub flotilla.
Provocative international initiatives are not the private preserve of a secretive and out-of-control chief executive, at least they are not supposed to be under the Constitution. Congress and/or the American people must mobilize to stop the President before he makes another irreversible blunder.
JAN S. ZAMOJC
Oceanside
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