UNSHEATHING THE SWORD

"We should bomb, bomb, bomb until the Serbs agree to give up all their ill-gotten territorial gains to save their life." TRUMAN HUNTER Oxford, Ohio IT'S ABOUT TIME THE WEST FINALLY acquired a conscience and used force in order to stop the Serb campaign of genocide in Bosnia [COVER STORIES, Sept. 11]. But the Serbs have every reason to believe that the resolve of the West will quickly dissipate. The only chance of bringing them to the bargaining table in earnest is for nato forces to continue air strikes until the Serbs have lost significant military assets. Only then will they have a real incentive to sue for peace. DAVID W. SELF Chandler, Arizona Via E-mail

THE "PEACE THROUGH BOMBING'' CAMPAIGN is destroying what could have been America's most significant contribution to a resolution of the conflict. A "peace'' externally imposed by military force upon the Bosnian Serbs will never hold. Those who think otherwise understand neither the Serbs nor the history of the Balkans. The Serb aspiration to be united and free is as rightful as was the aspiration of the two Germanys to be united. The same goes for the Croats and the Muslims. An equitable partition mutually agreed upon is the only answer. Stop the bombing. Call for an all-parties cease-fire. Lift the crippling economic sanctions on Serbia. And let mediators untainted by bloody hands impartially broker a just partition. (THE REV.) THOMAS LEE BASICH Advent Lutheran Church St. Paul, Minnesota

THE U.S.'S EXTREMELY TARDY BUT WELCOME change in policy is to be applauded. The international community has finally taken a side--the side of international law. May we have the conviction to stay the course. STEVE MUELLER Chicago

WE SHOULD BE PROTECTING INNOCENT Serb civilians just as we should protect the Bosnian Muslim civilians, no more no less. If not, the U.S. may someday be accused of crimes against humanity. Remember Vietnam. VLADISLAV A. TOMOVIC Williamsville, New York

THE U.N. HAS NO PART TO PLAY IN THE ethnic struggles going on in the states of the former Yugoslavia. These are localized clashes with no adverse effect beyond the states' boundaries. The U.N. should withdraw its forces without delay in order to regain the moral strength on which its effectiveness rests. SUMALYA CHAKRABORTY Rooty Hill, Australia

THIS WAR HAS PROVED THE INEFFECTIVENESS of the U.N. because of the strong influence exerted on it by the major countries of the West, as well as the unwillingness of the European Union members to sacrifice their economic interest in the area in order to follow a path of dialogue and understanding. IOANNIS TSIONAS Salonika, Greece Via E-mail

FOCUSING ON CROOKED COPS

HAVING BEEN A POLICE OFFICER FOR nearly 15 years, I can say your article on charges of corruption and brutality in America's police departments was right on target [POLICE, Sept. 11]. The law-enforcement officer is a product of the environment. Morale is at an all-time low. Even lower is public perception of law enforcement, one of the few careers in which you are seldom praised for doing a good job. After putting in the long, tedious hours, after experiencing the gut-wrenching fear of another dangerous arrest, and after completing mountains of paperwork, it is disheartening to go into the courtroom and see the now clean-shaven defendant, wearing a suit and tie, walk out with a slap on the wrist. In U.S. society now everyone is a victim, and no one is responsible. Police work, just like every other profession, has its share of questionable people. Where money, power and greed are prevalent, cops, attorneys, bankers, politicians and others will be tempted by the easy way out. When these people fall from grace, society must demand penalties suited to the crimes. Moreover, it is the administrator's responsibility to remove flawed people from the ranks before they have an opportunity to misuse their position. ROBERT A. BELLAMY Sheriff, Dundy County Benkelman, Nebraska

I KNOW IT SOUNDS RIDICULOUS, BUT I feel much safer on the streets of Los Angeles when there are no cops around. I am not really afraid of criminals or carjackers. However, as soon as I see the red and blue flashing lights in my car's rearview mirror, my hands start to shake, my legs shiver, and cold sweat runs down my neck. And this happens when I'm fully aware that I have committed no crime. I know there are some good, and even a few outstanding, officers out there. However, decent cops are paying a price for their colleagues' abuses. Sadly enough, they are feeling the way hundreds of innocent citizens have felt when framed or unjustly accused of crimes they didn't commit. ALEJANDRO ARREOLA Los Angeles

I HAVE BEEN A POLICE OFFICER FOR FIVE years, and I can tell you that the vast majority of law-enforcement officers are people who want to make the world a better place. For me, it was a sense of duty. Not every soldier is a murderer because of tragedies like the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Likewise, not all police officers are Mark Fuhrmans. THOMAS WASHBURN Cumming, Georgia Via E-mail

THE ADMIRABLE YANOMAMO

I WANT TO CORRECT THE LOPSIDED IMAGE of the Yanomamo Indians of South America given in Robert Wright's otherwise thoughtful report on 20th century angst [COVER STORY, Aug. 28]. Wright noted my work with the Yanomamo and stated, "The barbaric violence Chagnon documented is in some ways misleading." But those who have read my monograph Yanomamo: The Last Days of Eden know they are a valiant and admirable people. I have never used the word barbaric in any of my many accounts of Yanomamo social life, and have repeatedly pointed out that Yanomamo conflicts and wars are as understandable as our own. I have documented the guile, political subtleties, kinship manipulation, status rivalries, politicking and such that are characteristic of the Yanomamo's complex forms of mostly nonviolent mate competition. The fact that Yanomamo warriors are nearly naked and use bows and arrows does not make them barbaric. If invidious distinctions are to be made, it is our wars that are barbaric, not theirs. NAPOLEON A. CHAGNON Professor of Anthropology University of California at Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California

BASEBALL'S CLASS ACT

AT A TIME WHEN IT SEEMS THAT BASEBALL is no longer America's favorite pastime and when sports heroes have few qualities to admire, Cal Ripken Jr. is a national treasure [SPORT, Sept. 11]. He is not only a record breaker but also a class act, role model and one of the few major league players possessing a true and unadulterated love for the game. He makes me proud to be a baseball fan. APRIL THOMAS Beaverton, Oregon

NORMALLY I AM DISGUSTED WITH OVERPAID, whining professional sports figures. I think America's real heroes should be the doctors, nurses, social workers, law-enforcement officers and soldiers who usually work in obscurity and often put their lives at risk. However, after learning about Ripken's integrity, steadfastness, humility and self-sacrifice, I have to take my hat off. He is just a downright great example to us all, and yes, a true American sports hero. CHARLES POLAND Nacogdoches, Texas

LOSE THE OVERPAID, ARROGANT JOCKS, figure out a way to clone Cal Ripken, and baseball will be great again. KATHY HARTER Toluca Lake, California

SUPERIOR DIVERSION

GARRISON KEILLOR'S FASCINATING, tongue-in-cheek proposal for the state of Minnesota to exploit the waters of Lake Superior and export them to the Sunbelt [ESSAY, Sept. 11] would be much more credible if Superior's waters were first diverted into Lake Wobegon. ROBERT H. LEVIN Cincinnati, Ohio

I MUST POINT OUT A FEW THINGS TO THE man from Lake Wobegon. If anyone has a right to sell Lake Superior water, it's Wisconsin, with just as good a claim on it as our sister state of Minnesota. We also have a nice long shoreline on another Great Lake, and when Minnesota is building time-shares, we'll be upending Lake Michigan to let the water run downhill through the Chicago River, not only providing more water for our thirsty Sunbelt neighbors but also improving Chicago's water quality. SHEILA R. WHALEY Lake Delton, Wisconsin

KEILLOR'S FARCE IS TOO CLOSE TO REALITY. Let Lake Superior live unto itself, valued by us, its integrity a symbol for the world to ponder. T. EBEN HOBBINS Ashland, Wisconsin

THE ROOTS OF ROCK

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND Museum is hanging its shingle out in Cleveland, Ohio, a place that had nothing to do with the birth, infancy and childhood of the phenomenon called rock [MUSIC, Sept. 4]. The music began way before radio, TV, albums, cassettes or CDs. From Clarksville, Mississippi, came the blues, a real, dynamic, burning-for-the-truth-to-be-told music. This spirit moved swiftly from the delta to places like Memphis, Tennessee, and Tupelo, Mississippi. Then history changed forever when a young man named Elvis took this raw, untainted music from his heart and shared it with the world. Ask Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, ZZ Top or many others which individuals influenced them, and it becomes all too clear: B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, Little Milton. Rock 'n' roll's parents were the Mississippi Delta blues. But this music will keep on truckin' and will grow--with or without a museum in Cleveland. JEROME SHEFFIELD Aberdeen Lake, Mississippi

SISTERHOOD IN BEIJING

THE WESTERN MEDIA HAVE BEEN MORE interested in Beijing's human rights policy than in the substance of the conference on women's global issues [WOMEN'S RIGHTS, Sept. 18]. The rights of women are a part of all human rights. However, the emphasis should be on the issues facing women in general rather than on the situation in China. GANG XU Athens, Ohio

THE BEIJING CONFERENCE REVEALED just how naive some people are. If these ladies wanted to gather in order to have a free and open dialogue, why choose a place like China with its repressive, paranoid and irrelevant regime? AVIK GILBOA Hollywood

THERE WILL BE A REVOLUTION ONLY IF women from all walks of life get together and set the agenda for their future. Women should take charge and not wait. SHASHANK GARG Bangalore, India