Letter: A coward's war

Sir: Bravo, Robert Fisk ("Was it rescue or revenge?", 21 June). This is a most honest, and brave appraisal to be offering as most of the Western press falls in line behind the official propaganda of a "great victory" in Kosovo.

Kosovo will go down in history as the most cowardly war ever fought (or, more accurately, not fought). The idea of putting civilians at needless and terrible risk to avoid the political consequences of professional military casualties is not one we should become used to.

Because of its reluctance to engage the Yugoslav army, or even fly at an altitude where accurate targeting was possible, Nato ended up besieging an entire country, bombing it into submission by targeting its civilian infrastructure. A conscious decision was made to risk non-combatant civilian lives in order to minimise risk to the Nato combatants, who are professional military forces.

While the atrocities taking place in Kosovo were well worth opposing, the methods employed were beneath contempt, and highly ineffective as anything other than political spin for politicians who wished to be seen as "doing something".

GIOVANNI FAZIO

Tokyo