To the Editor:

Re “Trump Confirms Aborting Plan for Airstrikes on Iran” (front page, June 22):

Those who feel the need to compliment President Trump on his last-minute decision to call back an airstrike on targets within Iran in response to that country’s downing of an American drone would do well to reread the comment of a person described as “familiar with” Mr. Trump’s thinking. That person said Mr. Trump “liked the ‘command’ of approving the strike, but also the decisiveness of calling it off.”

Of course he knew that roughly 150 people would be killed. Even if he hadn’t asked about casualties, wouldn’t we expect that his advisers would offer that information? I believe that when he ordered the strike, he had already planned to call it off at the last minute because both ordering it and stopping it appealed to his gargantuan ego, and he felt it would appeal to his supporters.

Victoria Kelly

West Caldwell, N.J.

To the Editor:

To say that I am not a fan of President Trump nor of the Fox News host Tucker Carlson is the understatement of the year. But hurrah to Mr. Carlson for urging the president not to order a military action in retaliation for Iran’s shooting down one of our unmanned drones, which could have started another devouring, pointless Middle East war.

And to those critics who carp that Mr. Trump ignored the advice of his generals and military advisers in favor of the advice of a mere TV personality, I say I don’t care if he listened to Santa Claus. Mr. Trump showed strength and character by ignoring the hawks in his administration — something I wish Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush had done — and doing the right thing.