Letter: War propaganda cuts both ways

I TAKE an even more "hawkish" view of the need to grapple with and destroy Milosevic than most of the participants in the recent campaign. I must protest, however, that your correspondent Vince Greenwood (Letters, 27 June) chooses to defend every part of Nato's action by castigating my local Member of Parliament Bob Marshall-Andrews, rather than examining the facts. The recent events in Kosovo have occurred largely because of our past failure in Bosnia, and every politically aware individual who acquiesced must accept their culpability. Does this include Vince Greenwood?

Personal Balkan tragedies were repeated many thousands of times in the 1990s while the powerful "democracies" remained militarily aloof. During this time I do not recall many members of the Labour Party, of which I am a member, shouting, as they should have done, about the weakness and apathy of our Tory Government. Nor do I remember substantial New Labour protests that the Dayton Agreement allowed suspected war criminals - ie, Milosevic and his crew - an amnesty by default.

My recollection is that many of those who are now most bellicose considered that, with a General Election looming, involvement in the Balkans, even by verbal protest, was politically ill-advised. This was certainly not the case with Bob Marshall-Andrews who, viewing the situation as a lawyer, holds the opinion that such crimes must be punished if the business in Bosnia is to be completed. Such a view is certainly coincidental with that of many Bosnians I know and it echoes the lesson of the Allies at Nuremberg.

JOHN P BEAVIS MB FRCS

Rochester, Kent