Indictment of Milosevic

* The U.N. International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague has indicted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal (May 27-28). Will the tribunal have the courage to indict the other war criminals, namely, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, William Cohen and Sandy Berger?

These four have bombed hospitals, schools, villages, residential areas, refugees in buses and trains and have denied millions of people drinking water by destroying their water supply. By all accepted definitions these are war crimes and crimes against humanity. When will the court act?

ARIS ANAGNOS

Los Angeles

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* I find it ironic that some analysts believe that the indictment of Milosevic for war crimes will only make matters worse for the Kosovars. In 1944, when David Ben-Gurion asked the British to bomb Auschwitz, they refused and suggested that such a step might only make things worse for the Jews.

As human beings, we are often slow learners--and “worse” is a terribly relative concept.

RICHARD SHERMAN

Port Hueneme

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* Milosevic and Chile’s Gen. Augusto Pinochet belong in the same jail.

JOHN CHEVEDDEN

Redondo Beach

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* Did I actually read this? An Albanian father, Haxhi Lokaj, sent his 13-year-old daughter to fight with KLA rebels because she was horribly gang-raped for four days straight by the enemy troops (“In Kosovo, Rape Seen as Awful as Death,” May 27). He “regrets” her almost certain death but at least that will revenge the wrong that has been done to him.

And we are fighting to save these people and their culture? I don’t want one American soldier to get so much as a hangnail trying to rescue them. Land those planes and bring them home.

DIANE NICHOLS

Los Angeles

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* Re “Ike Would Offer This Advice: If You Use Force, Never Lose,” by William Bragg Ewald Jr., Commentary, May 26:

You may think that I would not be one to make the point for the use of force in the current Balkan tragedy. I am a liberal and a peace-loving man. For the past five or so years my heart has been crying daily for the people suffering the oppression of the fascist Milosevic regime in the former Yugoslavia.

Mothers and fathers might say: “Well, if you’re so willing to put American lives on the line, you go and do it!” I am not the ideal soldier; I have a medical condition, I am 34 years old and educated. I am not even a citizen of the U.S., I am a British citizen seeking to become an American. I have lived in Los Angeles for most of my life. I have come to a conclusion that I must put up or shut up. I am willing to risk my life to curb ethnic cleansing in Europe.

Milosevic must go! I support the use of overwhelming force in the former Yugoslavia.

JOHN MACKENDRICK

Pacific Palisades

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* Re “Clinton Lacks Right Stuff to Win This War,” Commentary, May 26: Robert McFarlane made the tragic mistake of sending a small number of Marines into Lebanon and then calling down 16-inch shells from our battleships on the Muslims. They then surprisingly blew up the barracks of our “peacekeeping” force. If we do learn from our mistakes, he should be an authority.

JOHN LAY

Morro Bay

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* So former national security advisor McFarlane thinks Clinton lacks the “right stuff” (“political leadership,” competency, “coherent policy” and, apparently, guts) to lead our country during this Kosovo crisis. His “expert” credentials for such an assessment are laughable. After all, the kind of national security on McFarlane’s and Reagan’s watch--according to Rep. Christopher Cox’s report--had holes in it big enough to ram America’s atomic secrets right through!

BONNIE COMPTON HANSON

Santa Ana

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* Michael O’Hanlon (“Ground Troops Can Do the Job,” Commentary, May 25) wants Clinton to send 50,000 U.S. troops at once to fight a “limited” war in Kosovo. However, we are now fighting a limited war properly by not sending ground troops. O’Hanlon doesn’t want to hurt either the Serbian economy or the Serbian people by the continued bombing. He fails to see that the air bombardment will not only continue, it will probably increase once our troops are fighting in Kosovo.

It isn’t a question of either bombs or troops; it will be both. Thus, the additive power of both will escalate this conflict and produce the opposite of what O’Hanlon envisions. The lesson of the Vietnam War ought to tell us that the carnage inflicted on all sides will be enormous and unlimited.

WILLIAM LANE

Rancho Santa Margarita