TERRORISM: WHAT DETERRENT?

Despite President Reagan's recently repeated assertion that "terrorists risk United States reprisal", an increasing number of officials and senior members of the armed forces in Washington are now beginning to question the effectiveness of the 17 April bombing attack on targets in Tripoli and Benghazi. Now that the reprisals by rather than on terrorist groups (of whatever persuasion) are increasing, these officials and senior officers are tacitly accepting that criticisms as to the effectiveness of the bombing are valid.