NATO in Kosovo

Let’s tell it like it is: Americans and NATO are involved in ethnic cleansing. I would like to see Slobodan Milosevic go--and quickly. However, two wrongs do not make a right, and right now NATO and the KLA are conducting a reverse ethnic cleansing campaign against the Kosovo Serbs (33,000 have already been kicked out). The idea of NATO and the KLA making up a United Nations peacekeeping force is an oxymoron. I have even heard that NATO intends to turn the KLA into a police force.

The only hope the Kosovo Serbs have is that Russians or maybe the U.N. do something. I never thought I would be cheering for the Russians to stop Americans from participating in an ethnic cleansing campaign.

GARY L. VAN ZANDT

Mission Viejo

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Robert Scheer (Column Left, June 15) compares Serbian ethnic cleansing to when U.S. troops in Vietnam, as he alleges, “herded loyal, mostly Catholic villagers into so-called ‘strategic hamlets’ for safety while turning the mostly Buddhist countryside of South Vietnam into a saturation bombing zone.” Where does this latest episode of virulent anti-Americanism come from?

Scheer’s comment embodies the fallacy of attempting to draw a moral equivalency between the incomparable.

WILLIAM S. DAVIS

Los Angeles

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Was it a clever idea by Boris Yeltsin that led to the Russian military seizing the airport in Pristina? Or is it an example of Yeltsin’s inability to control his subordinates? In either case, NATO and America have plenty to worry about. Maybe we should remind Russia of the American dollars his country needs to avoid bankruptcy.

KEY YOUNG KIM

Panorama City

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So the secretary of State and the president are jubilant over the alleged NATO victory in Serbia. As one who has seen the end of three wars in my lifetime, I am convinced that violence always begets more violence. We have not won anything in Kosovo. Instead, we have perpetuated the concepts of fighting, hatred and bloodshed, which have characterized civilization from its outset.

Apparently, as the world enters a new millennium, it is even less aware of the consequences of war than it was when World War I was declared to be “the war to end all wars.” If the human race does not learn to resolve conflicts by peaceful means, it will eventually destroy the planet and everything mankind has accomplished.

MAXINE ASHER

Beverly Hills

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President Clinton deserves some real credit for several decisions he made during the Kosovo crisis. He did not give in to the pressure of using ground troops; he allowed our NATO allies to take the lead even though the United States was supplying most of the forces; and he never went for the suggestion of arming the KLA. Too often this country has sided with dictators and criminal politicians as the lesser of two evils. Clinton may be a president from Dogpatch, but at least he knows that the way to control the Hatfields is not by giving guns to the McCoys.

MICHAEL McFADDEN

Newport Beach