U.S. OK on Arms Shipped to Bosnia by Iran

Re “U.S. OKd Iranian Arms for Bosnia, Officials Say,” April 5: Why is the president of the United States engaging in an illegal transaction with Iran to send arms to the Bosnian Muslims, while vetoing the congressional efforts to arm them? This is not dumb, it is stupid.

We had a perfect opportunity to send arms to the Bosnian Muslims legally and he refused to do it. Did he think that he could keep something like that a secret?

KEITH C. De FILIPPIS

San Jose

* The hypocrisy of the GOP in making partisan politics out of the Iranian arms shipments to Bosnia is mind-boggling (April 6). Are we really supposed to believe a Republican president wouldn’t have done the same thing?

The 104th (“we know better than the State Department”) Congress’ solution to the problem, a unilateral pullout of the arms embargo, would have damaged relations with our NATO allies immeasurably. Congress should be congratulated for coming up with the worst of many unpleasant options, and then made to sit in the corner, silently, and wear a dunce cap for the rest of the debate.

The bottom line is a simple point your April 7 editorial glossed over: The parties involved would never have progressed as far as sitting down at Dayton together had not the Croats and Bosnians been armed sufficiently to turn the tide against the Bosnian Serbs themselves. Letting a third party do the dirty work with a wink and a nod, had that third party been Beelzebub himself, was an opportunity the ghosts of Oliver North and company couldn’t have dreamed up in their wildest fantasies.

Should Clinton have been smarter about cluing-in the right people, and worrying about Iranian nationals in Bosnia once American troops were committed? Of course. Should he be raked over the coals now about a story that first came out a year ago, by a bunch of folks who punted on the issue? This is election-year duplicity at rock bottom.

J.D. WHITLOCK

Los Angeles

* I wonder if Iran-Bosnia will garner as much outrage as Iran-Contra among liberal Democrats in Congress and the liberal-elite media?

RON LUTEY

Camarillo