Letters
Falklands: means and ends
Sir: In making his unequivocal plea for a cease-fire Ferdinand Mount seeks to establish the principle of using force only in proportion to the morally justifiable objec- tive (8 May). This principle, he suggests, is especially crucial in modern warfare where the costs, particularly in lives lost, can escalate at an alarming and unpredictable rate. To announce the adoption of this principle, however, would merely be to signal to potential aggressors that they only have to make clear their willingness to raise the stakes high enough to ensure that they will never be stopped.
The practical application of the principle is in any case difficult to envisage since, as Mr Mount himself points out so graphical- ly, at the start of any conflict it is not possi- ble to predict the degree of loss likely to be suffered and therefore to balance it against the moral justification of the objective.
Mr Mount ends by suggesting that 'com- promises' might have to be made to achieve an 'honourable' settlement, but that this should now be acceptable because Argen- tina has already paid a high price in men and ships. For my part, if aggression is seen to achieve its objective, albeit at some cost, and if self-determination in this case comes to mean the islanders being given a choice between becoming Argentinians or leaving, then we would indeed have paid a wholly disproportionate price.
M. D. Noar
Mill House, Hollingbourne, Kent
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