Letter: Send in the troops

Sir: Anne McElvoy preaches at me for "petty selfishness" (Comment, 24 March) for arguing in the Daily Mail that the Nato attack on Yugoslavia, a sovereign state committing no aggression beyond its own borders, is a breach of the UN Charter and likewise of the North Atlantic Treaty. Does she think that morally condemning my article destroys the validity of its political and strategic analysis?

Since I wrote and she wrote, the course of events is proving sceptics like myself (who include an impressive array of retired military men and elder statesmen from Kissinger to Healey) to have been completely correct in our judgement that Nato's ill-thought-out policy, based on emotion and simplistic moralising, would lead to disaster. In particular, it has plunged the Kosovans, the objects of Nato's solicitude, into their present calamity.

Perhaps this experience will teach "Bomber" Blair and "Cruise" Clinton that state policy should be based on sense rather than sensibility.

CORRELLI BARNETT

East Carleton, Norfolk