Use of Force

* It takes a statesman of Churchill’s caliber to recognize that there are, unfortunately, despots, lunatics and occasions when diplomacy, discussion and debate are perceived as weakness, vacillation and appeasement and, in the end, cost more lives than had force been used judiciously earlier.

Had the U.N. taken the initiative months ago and dispatched NATO tanks to the area to defend a new Maginot line, the Serbs would not have dared to breach it. Instead, these stationary sentinels are merely unemployed mechanical monsters, facing a nonexistent adversary and accumulating rust in Germany, while the military searches for a mission.

President Clinton should take a respite from giving us civics lectures and read some history.

NAZIM KARIM

Laguna Niguel