Letter: Pinter strikes back
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: Timothy Garton-Ash (Comment, 6 May) is quite right to criticise my reference to Serbian "standard counter-insurgency" in the TV programme Counterblast. It is indeed a bland use of language. The reason I did not specify the Serbian atrocities which lay behind the term was because this is done every day of the week by others on television and in the press. But nothing I said in the programme could suggest that I condone these atrocities. Hardly. The point of the programme was to argue that dropping monstrously powerful bombs can only engender further atrocities and is in itself a crime.
Garton-Ash ignores one of the most important elements in Counterblast, which was our focus on the bombing of the Belgrade TV station. The Geneva Convention states: "Civilians shall not be the object of an attack unless they take a direct part in hostilities." The killings of civilians at the TV station and elsewhere are acts of murder. Or would Garton-Ash argue that they are humanitarian acts of murder?
As for his view that I believe America possesses "hypocritical, militaristic and imperialistic policies", and that Britain is "in poodle-like support of them", I couldn't have put it better myself.
HAROLD PINTER
London W8
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments