U.S. Intervention in Mideast

Recently, The Times carried a story about Secretary of State James Baker’s meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad. In that meeting Baker agreed with Assad’s statement that the invasion of Kuwait is essentially an Arab problem that can best be handled by Arabs.

If that is true, why are 100,000 of some of our finest young men and women sweating it out in the Saudi desert? Why? The honor of the civilized world is at stake! International law must be upheld! That bad man Saddam Hussein must be punished! So the powers-that-be proclaim. Good press, good propaganda.

Moral posturing aside, there are people, including many among the troops, who know the reason is oil, Almighty Oil. We are there to restore the ruling despots to Kuwait and keep the oil-rich sheiks of Saudi Arabia in power so the oil-guzzling industries of the West can continue poisoning the air and thinning the stratosphere.

Wouldn’t spending a few billion dollars on conservation and conversion to alternate fuels make better sense than war, especially a war that would surely result in destruction of the very oil wells we are there to protect? Let’s face it, such a war could escalate into the dreaded nuclear holocaust.

If it is an Arab problem for Arabs, why are we there? More important, how can we get out? No problem. Washington has experts in doublespeak. They can make a withdrawal sound like a glorious victory. Or were Secretary Baker and President Assad talking double talk?

ALBERT JOHNSON, Laguna Hills