OTHER COMMENTARY / EXCERPTS : Operation a Success, but the Patient Died

Many questions remain unanswered in the wake of the terrible tragedy in the Persian Gulf. But the larger question is whether the ships ought to remain there. And the fact that Ronald Reagan and George Bush and Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson have all opposed a precipitous U.S. pullout does not answer the question. All of these worthies have also come out four-square for peace in the region, without providing so much as a clue as to how that miracle should be wrought.

Moving beyond political platitudes, we need to address the most fundamental of strategic questions: What are we trying to accomplish there with the use of military force that justifies the sacrifices that we are called on to make?

The truth probably is that we stumbled in there in frustration over being humiliated time and again by the Iranians and to show the Soviets a thing or two when they offered to flag Kuwaiti tankers. Now we’ve gotten ourselves so deeply involved that we don’t know how to extricate ourselves. Whatever the reason, it is a damnable situation, and if we had any sense we’d rid ourselves of it.