LETTERS The long view
Sir: The assumption of Mr Kenneth Roberts's letter (16 April) is that he, having spent some time as an aid worker in Bosnia, is uniquely qualified to pronounce on the political and strategic situation there. You have recently published three articles by him which strike me as perfect illustrations of the rule that a little experi- ence is a dangerous thing. They have con- tained elements of misinformation which he may indeed have acquired from real live Bosnians, but which those of us who have access to a wider range of Bosnian sources know to be false. He displays no under- standing whatsoever of the origins of the war or the real purposes of those who made it happen; like many recent arrivals in Bosnia, he seems to think that to form a complete judgment on the war it is suffi- cient to go round awarding points for good or bad behaviour. He also apparently thinks that any old 'peace settlement' will do, regardless of its likely long-term conse- quences. I believe it is the job of a serious commentator to look a little further ahead than that. I am sorry if it strikes him as merely 'academic' to do so.
Noel Malcolm
The Daily Telegraph, Canary Wharf, London E14
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