administration will be imposed regardlessrnof the proceedings: Holbrooke doesrnnot go to Milosevic to “negotiate” but torndevise the precise mechanism for the applicationrnoinfait accompli. Last, but byrnno means least, Mr. Milosevic stays inrnpower in his ever-shrinking domain withrnthe tacit approval of his interlocutor,rnfreer than ever to deal with his domesticrndetractors (especially the remaining independentrnmedia) as he deems fit.rnThe most important consequence ofrnthe October agreement is that Serbia hasrnceased to exist as an independent state.rnKosovo has ceased to be de facto part ofrnSerbia, and it is set to be detached de jurernin the near friture. Since the massivernpullout of October 26-28, the remainingrnYugoslav army and Serbian police unitsrnin Kosovo have been supervised from thernair by NATO aircraft and on the groundrnby 2,000 foreign observers. Once arnweek, those security forces will have tornsubmit reports about their activities. Thernobservers will enjoy immunity. Tlie lawrnof the land will not apply to them, butrnthe government in Belgrade will be responsiblernfor their security. This makesrnthem a tempting target for Albanian terrorists,rnwho will be able to strike at anythingrnand anyone with impunity —rnknowing that any Serbian attempt tornstrike back would be condemned by thern”internahonal community” as a violationrnof the agreement.rnThe agreement also allows officials ofrnthe Hague Tribunal to come to Kosovornto “investigate” alleged atrocities. Thernlikely result of their deliberations is obviousrnfrom the fact that four-fifths of the indictmentsrnrelating to the war in Bosniarnand Croatia are against Serbs. The Tribunalrnis a polihcal, not a judicial, institution,rnand its involvement has politicalrnobjectives, ft will accordingly treat KosovornLiberation Army (KLA) crimesrnagainst the Serbs, as well as Albanians’rnself-inflicted atrocities, as non-events.rn(Those who doubt this need only rememberrnthe Bosnian Muslims’ stagemanagedrn”bread line massacre” of 1992,rnthe Markale marketplace “massacre” ofrn1994, etc.)rnBut the Tribunal’s involvement is significantrnsince the rest of Serbia is now alsorncoming under its jurisdiction. If thernauthorities in Belgrade still claim thatrnKosovo is an integral part of Serbia—asrnthey do—and yet allow foreign investigatorsrnand lawyers to do their thing there,rnthey create a dangerous precedent. Itrnmay clear the way for an internationalrnforce to burst into the Ministry of Defensernin Belgrade in search of indictedrnpersons or relevant documents. (Thernlate Hapsburg Empire is having a belatedrnlaugh: The rejection of this same demandrnby the government of Serbia in Julyrn1914 provided the pretext for thernAustrian-Hungarian attack which ignitedrnthe Old Continent.) Slobodan Milosevicrnhas succumbed to the demand thatrnSerbia give up its independence.rnIn order to comply with U.N. SecurityrnCouncil Resolution 1199, Serbian securityrnforces have withdrawn to such an extentrnthat the KLA has had no problem reestablishingrncontrol in the areas it hasrnlost since last spring, while spreading itsrnbrief to new territories. “We are seeing arnlot of KLA coming back, particularly inrnareas where Serbian police were leaving.rnAs long as they continue to observe therncease-fire . . . we have no concerns,” declaredrnShaun Byrnes, chief U.S. monitorrnin the multinational Kosovo DiplomaticrnObserver Mission, on October 27.rnThe effect on the remaining 200,000rnSerbs in the province is predictable.rn”Kosovo Serbs, bitterly accusing Milosevicrnof betrayal, threatened to abandonrnthe province for good,” according tornReuters. Their destiny is sealed: It willrnbe the same as that of their compatriotsrnin the Krajina, or in Sarajevo in the aftermathrnof another deal between Milosevicrnand Holbrooke, three years ago. Kosovornwill be “Serbenfrei,” but nobody willrnmind much in the outside world.rnOnce the remaining Serbian civiliansrnare goire, the precise constitutional formularnfor Kosovo’s eventual separationrnwill become irrelevant. Current Americanrnstrategy still envisages elevatingrnKosovo to the status of a federal republicrnin the rump Yugoslav federation, afterrnnext year’s provincial elections. Thernprovince would thus be formally detachedrnfrom Serbia, and after a “decentrninterval” (a few months, perhaps; a yearrnat most) the Croatian-Bosnian scenariornfor secession would be duly applied: Thernassembly in Pristina will call a referendumrnon independence, with the result arnforegone conclusion.rnThis “solution” will shake the Balkans.rnIt will imdermine the Former YugoslavrnRepublic of Macedonia (FYROM),rnwhere the Albanians comprise up to arnthird of the total population (as opposedrnto one-fifth in Serbia). The U.S. governmentrnswears by FYROM and supportsrnSkopje’s policy of denying autonomy tornits Albanians, but bv enabling theirrncousins in Serbia to get full autonomyrnand paving the way for independence,rnthe United States will unleash a revolutionrnof rising expectations among Macedonia’srnAlbanians that cannot be contained.rnThe Hungarians in Rumaniarn(who are more numerous than Serbia’srnAlbanians) are bound to demand thernsame, as are the Russians in the Ukraine,rnand the Kurds in Turkey.rnLeonid Brezhnev occupied Czechoslovakiarnin 1968 in accordance with therndoctrine of “limited sovereignty” that applied,rnaccording to Moscow, to all membersrnof the Warsaw Treaty. That doctrinernis applied far more liberally byrntoday’s proponents of the New WorldrnOrder. NATO has acted unilaterally inrnSerbia, outside its zone and in the absencernof any threat to any of its members.rnIt has threatened war, and explicitiy statedrnthat it needed no U.N. SecurityrnCouncil authorization to wage one. Itsrnapologists claim that its threats have imposedrna “solution.” They have, of sorts.rnWe have seen it all before, in Munich inrn1938. It did not stop with the Diktat tornthe Czechs then, and it would be naivernto believe that it will stop with the Diktatrnto the Serbs now.rn—Srdja Trifkovicrn” J O H N G L E N N returns to space!”rnthe headlines screamed, and I found myselfrnscreaming back, “I don’t care!” Irnguess it’s a generational thing: I wouldn’trnunderstand.rnWliy did so many people—especiallyrnchildren of the Baby Boom —care thatrnthis man, who has spent his entire lifernfeeding out of the public trough (witi: arnlittle dessert from Charles Keating), tookrnone more joyride at our expense? Orrnrather: I can understand why they mightrncare (after all, I care about this a greatrndeal myself), but why were they so happyrnabout it? Where were the conservativernprotests against the waste of taxpayers’rndollars? Where were the liberal cries ofrnelitism (after all, you don’t see NASA offeringrnrides to former astronauts whorndidn’t go on to be U.S. senators)? Wherernwere the Republican outcries against anrnobvious election-year ploy by a Democraticrnadministration? Where, finally,rnwere the omnipresent scientific experts,rnto point out that you can’t test the effectsrnof space travel on the elderly (or conductrnany kind of experiment, for that matter)rnon a subject group of one? The silencernwas deafening: In space, no one can hearrn)’0u scream.rnJANUARY 1999/7rnrnrn