Letter: Nato under attack
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Letter:
Nato under attack
Sir: How much longer do we have to endure Robert Fisk's Pinteresque anti- Nato rants ("What is the point of Nato?", 13 May)? He portrays Nato as a "vicious American-run organisation" led by "third-rate generals and two-bit under-secretaries", who are somehow duping "our own [European] compassionate socialist liberal leaders" into fighting a "stupid, hopeless, cowardly war".
The use of ground troops necessary to evict Milosevic's forces from Kosovo is not opposed by military people in Nato, who have made it known to the politicians that an air campaign on its own may not achieve the desired objectives. Military people also recognise and accept the inevitability of casualties in war.
Fisk goes on to argue that "until Nato is dead, there will never be a real European defence force". Maybe, but a real European defence force would require a huge increase in European defence spending. Would our "compassionate socialist liberal leaders" really be prepared to countenance this?
Even if one opposes Nato's current military action, it is absurd to dump all the blame for Kosovo on it. Kosovo is the culmination of a decade of failed and misguided diplomacy on the part of the whole international community towards the fascist thuggery of the Milosevic regime.
Probably the worst culprit has been the UN (according to Fisk "the only institution the poor and the sick and the raped and the dispossessed can rely on"), whose feeble surrender to Bosnian Serb "ethnic cleansing" (ie mass murder) was surely the greatest betrayal our continent has known since the era of Hitler and Stalin.
CHARLES KENNAUGH
Greasby, Merseyside
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments