Sir, - Your readership will no doubt realise that the Kosovan crisis is entering its end-game. The current absurdity of continual air bombardment of the Serbs, together with NATO indecision about using ground forces, can only compound the sense of tragic farce amid the bloodshed in Kosovo.
In the European context the British are roundly criticised for their belligerence. The Italians already decry Blair as the "new European God of War". Many suspect that the UK seeks to act prematurely before the military dividends of Thatcher's Cold War ambitions become obsolete.
Clinton's inability to formulate a coherent Balkans policy at the end of his second term merely reflects his failure to address many domestic issues at the end of his first. He is loath to bequeath his successor a debacle such as he inherited in 1992 with Somalia.
Given the apparent dearth of leadership in Washington, restraint in London, humanity in Belgrade and sobriety in Moscow what can Ireland do in Kosovo?
I believe that Ireland, as a newly confident European state, can play a decisive role in ending the current tragedy. Unfettered by Germany's historical baggage or France's disdain for "Pax Americana", we should use our current neutral status to co-operate with other European neutrals in establishing a brigade to complement a Slavic/NATO force acceptable to all Balkan combatants. Such a tripartite front can only act as a catalyst for peace. Given the lamentable disposition of our military, our contribution would be necessarily symbolic. Those Irish soldiers deployed would, however, secure for Ireland a prestige only imagined by our erstwhile MEPs.
Domestically, the Government would undoubtedly win any referendum on PfP were it to convert diplomatic rhetoric into peacekeeping reality. We must not repeat the mistakes of the Gulf War when US bombers at Shannon remained as unseen as the suffering of the Iraqi populace currently is. At present we act as ostriches, too often compliant with the whims of hawks. An open, humanitarian foreign policy, abetted by an effective military capacity, will afford us a say in shaping Europe's future. Can Ireland not act as it did in the Middle Ages and return to Central Europe as a civilising influence? Should we allow Gen Wesley Clarke and Milosevic to shape our 21st century as we let Stalin and Marshall shape our 20th? - Yours, etc., Alan Burke,
Carrigrohane, Co Cork.