Regarding Ramesh Thakur's Feb. 22 article, "Beware Kosovo's offspring": For the sake of maintaining an indefinite NATO presence in Kosovo to act against a resurgent Russia, Western leaders have destroyed the foundations of international law, including respect for sovereign nations, by illegally recognizing Kosovo's "independence."

This phony state will never be recognized by the United Nations, will never be able to defend itself without depending on foreign armies, and will be a landlocked Islamic "banana republic." Terrorists flourish there under the blind eye of NATO, which is now an illegal occupier of the Serbian province. In its handling of Kosovo, the United States has demonstrated that it abides by the law of the jungle -- "might makes right" -- and will provoke any crisis it deems necessary to achieve its foreign policy objectives regardless of the human toll.

Similar to the Nazi theft of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in 1938, the theft of Kosovo from Serbia in 2008 may provoke World War III. Japan should maintain a principled stance in accordance with international law and U.N. Resolution 1244 and not recognize Kosovo.

michael pravica