‘Wasting Time on Arms Control’

It is incredible that the Los Angeles Times would stoop to print as flawed and specious a column as that by Tom Bethell (Editorial Pages, June 22).

One expects some modicum of rationality in the opinions expressed by columnists (even those with whom one disagrees). Bethell, however, simply displays an astonishing degree of asininity.

He refers to the “nuclear threat” as being misleading so labeled, then states that since “liberals” have been warning of enough nuclear overkill to annihilate Earth many times, why concern ourselves about a few more nukes? However, he (inadvertently) argues against himself in asserting that a simultaneous multiple-missile launch is technologically difficult due to misfirings. It obviously escapes him that the more missiles available for firing, the more successful launchings there could then be.

Additionally, he espouses letting the Soviets build as many missiles as they like, since “they are expensive, after all.”

Are our own missiles not equally expensive? With every nuclear warhead we build, we erode the quality of our lives by allocating ever less funding for education, the arts, museums, libraries, environment, housing, transportation. Most important, we deny our citizens who are in need.

Bethell asks, “Do we really believe the Soviets are such cooperative, peace-keeping souls?”

I ask, can anyone believe we are? Grenada, Nicaragua harbor mining, contra funding, Libya bombing, World Court rejections, nuclear testing: We do not appear the epitome of “peace-keeping souls.”

Finally, Bethell equates arrow power with nuclear power by evoking a castle surrounded by archers and then opining that additional arrows would not further endanger the castle.

This is a mind-bogging analogy: a castle menaced by arrows as opposed to a world held hostage by nuclear weapons.

Well, maybe his analogy isn’t so simplistic after all: Let us and the Soviets dismantle every nuclear weapon in our respective arsenals and henceforth stockpile only arrows. Would that this could be.

ILENE BRISKIN

Beverly Hills