Sir, - With the deployment of NATO troops in Macedonia, we are somehow given the impression that it is for the greater good, and that such a deployment is an effort to prevent a wider war in the Balkans.
However, less well noticed is the absence of any UN contribution, either in troops or otherwise. We no longer hear talk of deploying UN troops. Sending Russian troops may ease a sensitive situation, and the UN has the mandate of the world behind it.
It would appear that the EU and the US no longer see the UN as viable or important, along with its useless and antiquated international law.
NATO recognises the strategic importance of the greater Balkan area, hence no involvement in "peace-making" in the six-nation war in the Congo.
Regional alliances such as NATO should have no hand act or part in any nation, unless under the flag of an independent UN. - Yours, etc.,
Gavin Sheridan, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.