Unlike the former Communists who returned to power democratically in Poland, those in Romania are unreformed. In Bulgaria the situation is equally bleak. Since 1989, the economies of the Catholic and Protestant countries of Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic have all grown faster, or at least have been less stagnant, than those of Orthodox Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia, and largely Muslim Albania. The Balkans were always the poorest part of Europe, but never more so than now. After the NATO air war against Serbia in 1999, in which Romania and Bulgaria showed themselves to be loyal allies of the West, providing military bases and rights to fly over their territory, hopes ran high in those countries that generous aid would be forthcoming.
People there say they have been bitterly disappointed.
An end to the Milosevic era could bring new hope in the Balkans. Mr. Milosevic failed not only as the result of his own miscalculations and the desire among Serbs for a better life that could come only with a new regime, but because America's democratic ideals were backed up by Western military and economic pressure. President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright deserve credit for applying the realist principle that projecting power is a prerequisite for the spread of one's values. In the 1930's, it was the Nazis who were applying military pressure and supporting local political parties in the Balkans with money, intelligence, printing presses and other aid. Not surprisingly, fascist ideals were then ascendant.