I think everything I have read or heard about our jolly little war in Yugoslavia totally misses the real danger we face because of it, and not because the Balkans have a history of involving the world in wars, but because the Russians are about to have an election and the nation and particularly its (sort of) democratic government have been humiliated both by our power play in their backyard and our treatment of them as irrelevant, ignoring their offer to mediate. The Russian ultranationalists were soundly defeated in the last election but the Communists came in a strong second, but if this stupid war lasts things could be very different. And what if, in order to build a majority, the nationalists and communists were to form a coalition--what chance would Yeltsin's successors have when the blame for the humiliation would be added to the blame for the economic collapse and the explosive growth of the Russian mafia?

Does anyone else see the striking similarities between Russia in the present and post World War I Germany? "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" --seed