Letter: Balkan dilemma

John Spencer
Friday 23 April 1999 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: When will the West learn that the only approach to take towards a military conflict is a direct one? The "campaign" in the Balkans is running on, and shows signs that it will continue to do so, with no decisive result in sight.

From time to time we see reports of air attacks against targets in Iraq, some nine years down the line. The tentative approach to conducting a relatively low-risk campaign over an extended period of time ends up causing more damage, more hardship and more casualties than a short, decisive engagement drawn up under tight military control and conducted with precise political objectives.

Dragging situations out with no decisive conclusion not only harms the civilian populations in the region, it also leads to heightened tension between world powers, ongoing cost and the risk of maintaining an active military presence a long way from the territory that they exist to protect. If this is not realised, there will be precious few Six Day Wars for us in the future, to the detriment of all.

JOHN SPENCER

Uxbridge, Middlesex

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in