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Photo ops should be secondary to critical intelligence

At the end of World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill counseled Ike to take Berlin before the Russians could. American troops were held back, and the result was division not only of Berlin but all of Europe. Is history repeating itself in Kosovo?

When Russian troops, upon the Serbian government's invitation, suddenly streaked for Kosovo and the Russian government made noises about occupying &emdash; in reality partitioning &emdash; a zone of Kosovo under Russian control, the Clinton administration and NATO were caught flat-footed. For reasons only the Clintonites possibly can explain, the president and his national security staff were caught offguard by the Russian move depite months of hostile rhetoric from Moscow.

Russia has been allied with the Serbian government at times, and so the Russians' intentions hardly appear friendly. They in fact appear quite ominous. The Russian threat to peace in Kosovo seems particularly acute considering one big difference between Kosovo and post-World War II Berlin: Bill Clinton is no Harry Truman.

It is a symptom of President Clinton's inattention to and incompetence in national security matters that the planned simple movement of NATO peacekeeping troops into Kosovo should erupt into a potential standoff with Russia.

Instead of milking a shaky peace agreement for every photo-op he can glom &emdash; the speech in front of a B-2 Stealth Bomber was a particularly rich item, since Clinton attempted to defund the B-2 program &emdash; Clinton ought to pay closer attention to the basics of conducting a national security policy.

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