Sir, - They thought it would work: a quick, effective air-strike to degrade the enemy's military capability and force him to make peace. But of course we have long known that the attack on Pearl Harbour did not diminish the Americans' will to fight. Far from it, it served only to make them extremely angry and the US awoke like a sleeping giant, as predicted by the mastermind of that raid, Admiral Yamamoto. The Germans made the same error a year earlier when Goering's Luftwaffe tried to break British resolve, only to stiffen it. Later the British themselves repeated the mistake when "Bomber" Harris thought his massive raids would bring Germany to its knees.
It seems the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. The NATO raids on Yugoslavia will not bring about the submission of that country. What the raids have already accomplished is to strengthen Slobodan Milosevic's hold on power and quicken the mass expulsion and in some cases mass murder of ethnic Albanians.
Air power is destructive - the Vietnamese can testify to that - but not destructive of the will to fight back. What air power cannot do is stop Serbian troops from attacking Kosovan cities, towns and villages.
The question must be asked: why was it left so late to do anything to stop what was happening in Kosovo? Ethnic Albanians were being harassed and expelled from work and home since the late 1980s. The warnings were sounded time and time again that another Bosnia-type conflict would erupt.
The tens of thousands of refugees making their desperate escape from certain death must be helped. Naturally they wish to return to their homes and this should be made possible before too long. But until they can go back to where they were born and grew up they must be given shelter and help to recover from the terrible trauma they have suffered. Everything must be done to reunite families torn apart. Hopefully the shocked and stunned survivors of the Serbian onslaught will not have to wait a lifetime and longer to return to their homeland, unlike the Palestinian refugees who still hold on to the keys of the houses they were forced out of more than 50 years ago and have yet to return to. - Yours, etc., Terry Butler,
Church Road, Dublin 3.