Now, all of a sudden, we are listening with more interest to what is coming out of Belgrade. It is important to remember that on paper at least, there was never much distance to be covered to close the gap in the talks at Rambouillet that ultimately broke down. Milosevic did not want troops under the command of NATO to occupy Kosovo. The current talks are aimed at resolving that sticking point. This is what the striped pants boys do best, and we ought to let them get on with it.
Every war ends sooner or later.
As Walter Lippman pointed out so presciently in his book Public Opinion , modern war requires the support of the common man, who in turn must be convinced that today's enemy is the Anti-Christ. This makes the peace process harder because the people must now be convinced that we can indeed live with the anti-Christ after all. In this particular instance, the work is made all the harder because Milosevic really is a slime ball. Sooner or later he will have to go. But that work can come later.