Kosovo Crisis

* Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said that if the Serbians do not say yes to her plan, they will be bombed, and if the Kosovars do not say yes, they will suffer a cutoff of aid (meaning weapons). This is the best thinking of which the armed empire is capable; this is its definition of “peace” and how to pursue it. No wonder the U.S. suffers among the highest levels of social violence anywhere. This is the story of an armed empire. It is up to us to remake it.

JOE MAIZLISH

Los Angeles

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Re “The Risks of Open-Ended Commitments,” by Henry Kissinger, Opinion, Feb. 21:

After two weeks of shuttle diplomacy in Rambouillet, the real fabric of a so-called peace agreement appeared in stark nakedness. First, there wasn’t even shown the slightest intent either to give an opportunity for direct negotiations between Serbs and Albanians about matters concerning only their people or to see and hear in public their arguments. Second, the show was taken over by the third party, supposedly objective “masters of ceremony” from NATO countries, with the U.S. overpowering everything and everybody.

Unfortunately, self-aggrandizing statements of our current administration, such as that “America symbolizes hope and resolve,” are exhortations, not policy prescriptions, as commented by Kissinger. The only real agenda in Rambouillet is to force (under heavy threat of massive airstrikes) the Yugoslav government to allow permanent occupation of Kosovo by NATO forces, with the main goal hidden behind: to take direct control of the Balkans.

DON RADOVICH

Long Beach

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Re your Feb. 19 editorial, “A Deaf and Blind Milosevic”: NATO cannot make another mistake. First there was Slovenia, then Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo. If Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic is not stopped now, who will be next? The time has come now! If the “Butcher of the Balkans” does not accept the NATO peace proposal, he and the majority of the Serbs who think like him must be punished.

ROBERT MATESIC

San Pedro