Danger in Syria, Korea and the Baltic states – it’s no time to disarm
SIR – Roger Bootle’s article (“Defence is the one area where this Government should spend more”, Business, April 10) was characteristically to the point.
His message is underscored by Paul Kennedy’s up-to-date introduction to the new edition of his magisterial Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery.
In a passage on the limitations of American naval strength, he says: “It would be a rare conjunction of bad luck, or of very inept diplomacy, that would see Washington having to rush reinforcements from the US homeland to, say, the Baltics and the Korean peninsula at the same time as it dared not move units from the Persian Gulf / Indian Ocean theatre.”
That conjunction has just occurred, with all that it implies for the dangers to world peace. Is this a good time at which to be disarming ? Michael St John Parker Bampton, Oxfordshire SIR – To confront the Russian Bear (William Hague, Comment, April 11) is unwise without leaving it a (face- saving) means of escape, as Kennedy did in the Cuban missile crisis.
Trying to take out Middle Eastern dictators has been shown to be a flawed policy. Adding the risk of conflict with Russia is not at all clever. Pulborough, West Sussex SIR – The problems in Syria will not be resolved without addressing two issues. First, Russia wants to ensure that a fundamentalist Islamic state will not replace the current regime, since it fears (more than sanctions from the West) the effect on predominantly Muslim states to the south of Russia.
Secondly, the Assad regime will not release the reins of power unless those who would be tried for the atrocities perpetrated in Syria are given legal immunity. Relinquishing power would mean death or long incarceration handed out by the courts.
Address these issues, and a political resolution might have a chance. Solihull SIR – Is “regime change” not specifically prohibited under international law as a reason for using force against another country? Tavistock, Devon SIR – The bumbling episode of the cancellation of the visit to Moscow by Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, makes the British Government look more like the chaotic Trump administration and does not bode well for Brexit negotiations with the EU. London E2 SIR – It is time to reform the UN or for democratic nations to go their own way and ignore it. Two authoritarian regimes are holding the world to ransom over Syria. The UN is as weak as the League of Nations was.
If a country is undemocratic it should not be allowed a veto on the Security Council. Taunton, Somerset