Letter: Trial by jury

Letter: Trial by jury

Sir: In 1908, H G Wells published The War in the Air, a novel predicting a future war which the world's major powers tried to wage entirely by bombing, without using ground troops at all.

This strategy caused immense destruction, but brought no decisive outcome. No nation would ever acknowledge defeat. Governments and people continued to defy the bombers as civilisation collapsed around them.

In the many bombing campaigns of the 20th century, Wells's prediction has been repeatedly proved right for all to see - or, it would seem, all except Nato's strategists. As Wells himself wrote in the preface to the book's 1941 edition: "I told you so. You damned fools."

RUPERT LEE

Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire