IT was said after the last great war that never again would the people of Europe allow the politicians to drag them into war.

Yet this government has done just that. Serbia is a sovereign state and Kosovo is an historical part of Serbia. Whatever the other rights and wrongs, Serbia was not committing any aggression on neighbouring states.

There is no UN resolution for this act of war, it is therefore illegal and criminal and by definition, the Prime Minister and his cabinet may well be guilty of war crimes. There can never ever be justification for aggression save for counter attack in defence.

The politicians and military talk blithely of 'taking out' military installations and barracks as though these were simply lumps of concrete and steel devoid of the flesh and blood of thousands of young Serbs who man them. Much of the Serbian forces will now consist of young conscripts who, regardless of the rights or wrongs of the situation, have no choice, at least in the short term, but to obey the dictates of their political masters

The possible consequences of this act of folly don't bear thinking about. The whole of the Balkans are a flash point and our political masters have just lit the fuse behind our backs.

The objectives of the action were deeply flawed from the start and, as predicted, the Kosovans are now suffering far more than before.

MIKE BAMBER, Cross Hill Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.