Editor-at-Large

All's well

that ends well.

You'll

recall that this is the phrase I used to express my best

hopes for the air war over Yugoslavia back when it first

began.

Well, it

appears to have ended well, at least in terms of one's

most immediate worst fears - that Americans would be

coming home in large numbers in body bags, that we would

be drawn into a protracted ground war, or worse, that

trouble would break out elsewhere in the world and our

already overtaxed military would find itself undermanned,

under-gunned, under-equipped and under-trained fighting

on too many fronts.

That would

be a complete disaster, and it certainly was a risk. If

North Korea had suddenly gotten feisty, we'd have been in

a world of hurt.

But none of

that happened. Slobodan Milosevic, president of

Yugoslavia, saw the light and has begun withdrawing his

troops from his nation's own province of Kosovo, NATO

troops are moving in to keep the peace, and so far not

one American has lost a life in the conflict.

But I can't

quite expel a sigh of relief and declare that all ended

well, because it hasn't ended yet, and we are not out of

danger.

First, we

now have a few thousand troops on the ground in Kosovo,

and there is always danger from the stray sniper or land

mine, not to mention the possibility that Milosevic could

suddenly have a change of heart and attack. It's not very

likely, and I'm not wasting too much time worrying about

it, but it is possible.

Second,

what I do worry about is the suggestion I made several

weeks ago that the legacy of President Clinton may well

be that he has restarted the Cold War.

Russia is

angry with us, and has inserted a maverick contingent of

troops into the situation. And despite early assurances

from our leaders that this problem would go away after a

little negotiation, it doesn't seem to be going away.

Shortly

after their troops "accidentally" rushed in and

set up positions ahead of NATO troops, the official

Russian reaction was, "Oops!" But if indeed the

incursion was simply a false start, those Russian troops

would be assimilated into NATO command by now.

I have to

believe that this is a calculated move to protect

Milosevic from possible prosecution as a war criminal, to

preserve the remainder of Yugoslavia from any attempt to

exert control by NATO or the U.S., and to establish a

strong Russian control factor in the region.

At some

point, there are going to be serious negotiations about

the future of Kosovo, and unless we are willing to start

a war with them, the Russians will be in the driver's

seat.

That's

really not such a bad thing, unless they start building

walls and carving out territories, setting up the

building blocks for a period of international tension.

Let's hope that doesn't happen, but at best one result of

our adventure in Kosovo is that we have breathed new life

into Russian nationalism and possibly even communist

influence in that country.

We've also

angered China - not just the government, but the

people, too. True, the people probably wouldn't be as

angry if their government would let them learn the truth,

but we live in a real world, not a world of "what

if."

Third, our

military, sliced to the bone by this administration,

still has troops in more places throughout the world than

it ever has, thanks to the view of this same

administration - possibly a valid one - that we

should police the world. Any one of those trouble spots

could erupt at any moment, and we don't have enough

people, weapons, equipment or even enough transport to

deal effectively with a major crisis.

Now that

our president is finally beginning to understand that we

still need a strong military even though we're getting

along better with the Russians, he is calling for an

increase in military spending, and with a Republican

Congress it's possible we'll get things back in order

fairly quickly.

But in his

response to this realization, he once again reveals the

character that makes him the object of such contempt by

conservatives. It's why we don't simply disagree with him

on policy matters and respect him as a worthy adversary

in this great system we call representative democracy.

Instead of

admitting that he was wrong and asking us to join him in

working to restore the military to its former strength,

he tries to blame previous administrations for the

problem. He said in a recent speech that we need to stop

the decline in military spending, then with emphasis,

"that started back in 1985."

Yes, after

several years of rebuilding the military following its

decimation in the post-Vietnam era, President Reagan

decided we had done enough and reduced the rate of

increase in military spending. We had a period of

moderation in that respect.

But when

Clinton took over, he took that to a new level. He didn't

simply slow down the growth. He practically dismantled

the military, sending hundreds of thousands of seasoned

veterans into early retirement, halting production of

equipment, ships, trucks, planes, bombs.

If the

whole thing blows up in his face, and I sincerely pray

that it does not, there is absolutely no way he can hang

it on his predecessors the way he has tried to do with

his administration's shameful cooperation with Chinese

espionage.

As for

Kosovo, I repeat: Let's pray that it all ends well.

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