I am writing in response to the letters of Travis Parchman and Debra Israel in the February 2, 1989 Daily Collegian. I am usually inclined to be sympathetic to any cause which can be characterized as "just," but the convoluted logic of these two fails to convince me as to how right they are.

Mr. Parchman claims to be in the right in his current conflict with administration officials over events which took place during the CIA recruitment protest of this past Nov. 21. He claims that they were entirely justified in breaking certain laws "in order to stop a greater crime from being committed." He then alludes to the murders of 3.6 million people at the hands of the CIA.

I find this astonishing, to say the least. For the CIA to conduct a program of genocide on nearly the same scale as Stalin's purges or the Holocaust without being found out by the prying eyes of the media is beyond comprehension.

If Mr. Parchman and associates are privy to evidence of this horrible crime, they should turn it over to the proper authorities at the Justice Department immediately. But what good would that do, since they are all part of the great Establishment Conspiracy also?

As for Debra Israel, what can I say? I will not deny that the CIA has been involved in some pretty shady dealings. Some of these were completely inexcusable, while others were equally necessary. It is about time we take off the blinders and recognize that the world is not all that nice a place.

I may be accused of taking a very cynical Hobbesian view of the way the world works, but reality is oftentimes a very bitter pill to swallow. A lot of terrible things happen in the big wide world, and we cannot sit by and pretend that no harm will come to us if we just let things straighten themselves out. The world just doesn't work that way.

When the United States became involved in Nicaragua over 10 years ago -- Ms. Israel might recall that the Sandinistas never could have toppled Somoza without the help of the U.S., and the CIA -- little did we know that we would only be creating some very large future headaches for ourselves.

Ms. Israel seems to think that the world would be a much nicer place if we had just left the Sandinistas well enough alone. She states that the CIA helped the Contras "destroy the progress the Nicaraguans have made since the Somoza dictatorship was toppled."

Progress indeed. Mr. Ortega has done a wonderful job improving the living conditions in the paradise of Nicaragua. Recently he announced that he must lay off over 35,000 government employees -- nearly half. That increased the already staggering unemployment rate by another 1 percent.

Those who are lucky enough to have jobs are literally working for nothing. The money they receive in return for their services is worthless. Inflation has soared by nearly 23,000 percent in the past year. Add to that the fact that food shortages are accepted as part of everyday life and that the individual rights which we take for granted in this country are virtually non-existent. The picture does not seem so rosy anymore.

To say that the Sandinista regime is an improvement over Somoza is like saying that the mumps are better than the measles. I wouldn't want to have either.

And while we're on the disease analogy, maybe I should mention that doctors oftentimes use a virus to fight another more dangerous virus. It's sad that things have to be this way, but maybe it's good we have a virus like the CIA around.