Sir, - War, however just, is never less than terrible. In listing the conditions for a just war, one condition is seldom if ever mentioned, namely, the humane treatment of the vanquished. A just peace is integral to a just war.
Most historians agree that the harsh way Germany was treated after the first World War led inexorably to the second World War. Why have we not yet learned the lesson?
In my view, Desert Storm was proven ultimately to be unjust. In Iraq, babies are still dying in their hundreds because the vanquished are still being treated cruelly. Loathing Sadam Hussein, the Allies reversed the scripture: "It is right for a whole nation to suffer because of one man."
If the statements of Mr Blair and President Clinton are anything to go by, NATO, out of contempt for Milosevic, is about to inflict the same injustice on Serbia. I, for one, never doubted that NATO, richer and more technically advanced, would bring Serbia to its knees by air power alone. But the justice of that war still needs to be proved by he fulfilment of the final condition: a just peace.
Walt Whitman write: "I play not a march for victors only . . . I play great marches for conquered and slain persons." To prove finally the justice of its cause, the West must swallow its understandable hatred of the Serb leadership and show great magnanimity to the suffering Serbian people. - Yours, etc.,
Peter De Rosa, Ashford, Co Wicklow.