By DAVE HAMRICK

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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