Kosovo War

Well now, both Slobodan Milosevic and President Clinton declare victory in this undeclared war (June 11). It is sad to think of all those killed, the needless destruction and the money cost for the operation.

Worse, we and our allies must now deal with the KLA, the real terrorists who started it all in the first place. I expect that in the case of the British, they will now consider the experience with the IRA terrorists to have been a useful training experience.

Worst of all, the media will not place the blame for the carnage and damage where it belongs, namely on Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

It will be a long while before we get away from this tar baby.

SIDNEY HATCHL

Santa Ana

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Retired Lt. Col. N.C. Bayley, in his June 11 letter, claims the Kosovo war was not really a war because we never had any casualties. He sounds disappointed. Could it be that he and the other Clinton-hating military experts who predicted that we would inexorably be pulled into a ground war are disappointed that we won?

BROOKS W. WILSON

Fallbrook

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The war in Kosovo is not any kind of victory and it certainly is not just or honorable (June 11). American and NATO fliers have been forced by their governments to commit atrocities from the air against the civilians in Yugoslavia. This indiscriminate bombing of a small country into submission by terrorizing the civilian population is a war crime. I urge the tribunal in The Hague to indict Clinton, Albright, Blair and Gen. Wesley Clark, to name a few. They should be held accountable!

BILL KAISER

Burbank

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Author and military historian Caleb Carr opined that William Sherman, the Civil War general, “is rolling over in his grave about what is happening in Kosovo” (Opinion, May 2). Carr wrote, “If NATO wishes to bend Milosevic to its will, it will do so only when its ground troops, supported from the air, cut his units off from their sources of supply and then engage them. This becomes more clear daily, even to those who know nothing of military history.”

What really becomes more clear daily is that military history will be rewritten. Gen. Sherman still rests easily.

DAVE WYMAN

Los Angeles

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Amid the war of dissenting words among Times’ readers and letter writers, isn’t it time for all of us to say thank you and God speed to our pilots, soldiers, sailors and Marines, without whom our words would be meaningless, as there would be no free press to print them!

MICHAEL ARNOLD GLUECK

Newport Beach

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We have a yard with some impressive, large bamboo. For a few years we have let small bamboo shoots grow among the large ones. A few weeks ago, we declared war on the messy underbrush. After weeks of effort, but without injury to us or the big bamboo, we wiped out the little ones. Only at the end did I realize that we had destroyed the weak and poor, leaving the rich and powerful in full command.

We had waged and won the perfect little war.

GEORGE TUCKER

Redondo Beach