We could have put more pressure on Milosevic by other means, and we should have asked Richard Holbrooke to have another go at negotiation. If you attack Yugoslavia over Kosovo, why don't you attack Russia over Chechenia? Why don't you attack Turkey for its war against the Kurds?
This war may spread to Macedonia, dragging in Greece and Turkey, or to Slovenia, dragging in Italy. Nato has no long-term plan, doesn't know how or when it will ever get out, and whether it will have to put land troops in as well. So it's absolutely vital now that we resume negotiations.
Serbia is recognised by the UN as a sovereign country. Remember that we're often criticised for what we do in Northern Ireland with the IRA (although the massacres have been very much more serious in Kosovo). It is a terrible error not to consult the UN over this. We made a mistake in acting so fast and in committing ourselves to a prolonged campaign, in which we've given total power of decision not to Nato governments, but to the Nato military commanders.
There is no threat from Russia in the sense that they're threatening to intervene in the war. I don't think they're capable of doing that. But there is a very serious risk that Yeltsin, who is trying hard to maintain good relations with Nato, when the rest are already upset by its enlargement to include Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will be overthrown by a coalition of nationalists and militarists. That could face us with problems that will lead to far more suffering than anything that's happening in Kosovo.
Lord Healey, Labour defence secretary 1964-70, was speaking on yesterday's Radio 4 Today programme
