Sir, - Like many of us, Anthony Hanrahan (June 22nd) is amazed at the level of anti-NATO opinion in this country with respect to the Kosovo crisis. Perhaps the most depressing letter was from Zivko Jaksic of the Serb Information Bureau (June 23rd), who said he had "refrained from writing to you during the past 11 weeks of NATO bombing .. . since so many of your intelligent readers have expressed opinions identical to mine"!
How right he is. There must be few countries in Western Europe so sympathetic to the Serbs or, at the very least, anti-NATO. One wonders if those most vociferous in criticising NATO will be as quick to condemn the torture and mass graves now being discovered in Kosovo. Will we hear more from Vincent Browne, who described as "murdered" the civilian casualties from NATO actions. Does he understand the meaning of the word "murder"? Or from Eamonn McCann, whom I heard outside the US Embassy likening the NATO operation to "the invasion of the Congo by King Leopold of Belgium".
The entire debate about Kosovo in this country has had a depressing quality and only confirms the irrelevance of our commentary on important foreign issues. Tens of thousands of people have been slaughtered in Kosovo, by the same forces who massacred people in Bosnia, and all these commentators can do is wait to leap on the mistakes of those who actually feel motivated to do something about it. Meanwhile, we sit on our smug little island, scratching away at old sores and grievances: 1798, the Famine, the Past. Perhaps it is better that we stay out of Partnership for Peace, since our presence inside it would only make it more difficult for effective action to be taken over atrocities in places like Bosnia and Kosovo. - Yours, etc., Eamon Delaney,
Pembroke Road, Dublin 4.