Les Aspin

* The recent calls for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Les Aspin (Oct. 8) may not be overstated. Aspin denied the request from the commanders in Somalia for more troops. It wasn’t until a large number of soldiers were killed that it occurred to the White House and the Secretary that it might be time to re-evaluate the mission. This sounds like management by crisis and is often practiced by people who are in over their heads.

The military commanders on the scene retain some responsibility for events as well. Aside from the obvious intelligence failures it seems that the only reserves that the commanders had readily available to them were the Blackhawk helicopters. When these were shot down the forces on the ground had no reserves. A lesson that the British learned 10 years ago in the Falklands War was that helicopters will be lost whenever they are used on the front lines in daylight hours against a modern enemy. It should not have come as a surprise then that the Blackhawk helicopters were shot down.

On a separate subject, I’d like to comment on a letter from Ken Herman (Oct. 11). Herman’s reference to “boys who were too stupid to avoid military service” is insulting and literally thoughtless.

G. P. GREEN

Yucca Valley

* Are we going to whitewash Aspin for his decision to not send armor to Somalia when the field commander asked for it? The result was the slaughter of many of our Rangers. And now I understand that Aspin is all for sending American troops to reinforce the U.N. in Bosnia? Get this guy out of there! Aspin and his cohorts are a prime example of the adage, “Old men talk and young men die!”

PAUL T. SMITH

Rancho Palos Verdes