If it wasn't enough that the Balkans conflict (at least between NATO and Serbia) ended last week, the LA cops also busted high-priced madam Jody "Baby Doll" Gibson. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Sure enough, with his poll numbers dropping, Clinton had to find a way to end this thing. And, to be fair, Milosevic was probably tired of seeing his country blown up. In the end, of course, they both claimed victory.

Victory, for our side, consisted in getting Slobo to pull out of Kosovo. Never mind that all the ethnic cleansing has been accomplished, and that we have unleashed strong anti-American feelings among the Ruskies.

Victory for Milosevic consisted in Kosovo still being part of Serbia, and not having to back down. That the Serbs are tough is hardly news. Even Hitler and his elite Waffen SS finally gave up trying to defeat them.

Where we lose, though, is in having to occupy Kosovo, most likely forever, to prevent violence from starting anew.

As I said when this started, ultimately, this problem has to be resolved by the citizens of the country, themselves. What business did we have in there, anyway? Did we take some sort of moral stand? Not exactly...

There were only two factors in this one, and they weren't moral:

Providing a diversion for Clinton, and re-establishing the credibility of NATO. The tragedy is that so many Americans bought into this farce.

Ethnic strife will be with mankind always. Besides, what kind of moral authority can we claim? In OUR civil war, we killed people in the South merely for seceding!! At least in Serbia, the groups had hundreds of years to build up THEIR mutual hatred.

In a country where we wouldn't remove a President because the economy is good, and abortion on demand somehow became a constitutional right, we should be hiding our heads in shame instead of taking a "moral stand." The Brits aren't any better. Given their record in Ireland, and based on current reasoning, NATO should probably be bombing London--but yet, they are our biggest cheerleader in this tawdry little affair.

Which brings us to Jody "Baby Doll" Gibson. Did we really have any business arresting this entrepreneur? I suppose we would have, if we had an otherwise moral society, but in case you haven't noticed, we certainly don't.

With only one in four murders being solved in LA, we can only laugh at this misuse of resources. Or cry.

With an ever-falling educational standard, and a growing underclass, demanding an ever-increasing tax burden--to barely scratch the surface of our problems--I just can't get real excited about the Balkans OR Baby Doll.