Letter: Nato's fault, again

Sir: Nato have finally sunk to the status of buffoons after blowing up a little bit of China in Belgrade with the resultant maiming and killing of Chinese embassy staff.

Now China has reserved the right to respond. Let's hope they're not overly influenced by America's precedent-setting response to US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The American administration, in typically gung- ho style, blew up a medical factory in Sudan, thinking wrongly that it was a nerve gas production plant. And there was more than a whiff of politically expedient timing with Clinton embroiled in a sex scandal.

Britain has been drawn into a continuous double act with its friends across the pond, pandering to and reinforcing this bizarre gun-toting defence-of-the-free-world nonsense. Nato must take responsibility for its mistakes and the people of democratic Nato countries must take responsibility for their governments.

STEFAN WICKHAM

London W1