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

A disaster is often the catalyst for a re-think. It is not too late for the United States to decide, as it girds itself to defend this awful accident, to shift its thinking and offer to withdraw its ships and those of its European allies from the Persian Gulf. In their place it would call for a U.N. flotilla.

If the United States instead comes to a decision simply to tough it out, then there really is a disaster waiting to happen. President Reagan must be persuaded to get America out before the Iran-Iraq War consumes it in a terrible embrace.