Kosovo War

* Re “U.S. OKs Updating of Plans for Ground War,” April 22: Up to now, the U.S.-NATO campaign in Yugoslavia has amounted to a war of attrition; just how much material damage can Slobodan Milosevic and his Serb forces withstand before seeking an end to the bombing? So far, about one month. How much more time and money can the U.S. afford to invest in this endurance test?

Like it or not, ground troops must finish this job. Lives will be lost, there will be wounded and captured casualties--that’s the price of conflict on any scale. The U.S. has let it come this far, the task must be finished. A popular option it definitely is not. But unless an accord is reached, there is no choice.

GARY TRAXLER

Oxnard

* By what right does NATO make plans for sending young Americans to be slaughtered in a ground war? It would be very easy to stop all this talk about a ground war in Yugoslavia. Plan for the first wave of troops to be personally led by Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Tony Blair, NATO generals and the many bellicose media editorialists. At this point, we would suddenly discover that a peace agreement was not only possible but also essential. Stop violence!

QUENTIN C. STODOLA

Redondo Beach

* The use of our tax money to be squandered on a war in Yugoslavia in which a nation is destroyed in the name of saving it is wrong. And in the future, the expenditure of more of our taxes to rebuild what we have destroyed is disgusting. Our national interests are not there to justify this. It seems we didn’t learn our lesson in Vietnam.

JACK GILMAN

West Hollywood

* To those who dislike President Clinton, anything he does will either be too much, too little or too late. But standing on the sidelines criticizing helps no one. When reason fails, action becomes necessary where innocent lives are at stake. Thank God for the courage of Clinton and NATO!

ROBERT FRITSCHE

Long Beach