KOSOVO.

KOSOVO. No doubt intoxicated by the enthusiasm of the Albanian crowds, President Bush has decided to throw caution to the wind and call for the formal independence of Kosovo:

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Sunday the United Nations should grant independence quickly to the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, and if Russia continued to block it then the West would act.Bush's insistence on a deadline for a U.N. Security Council resolution to give independence to Kosovo was the latest sign of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington. Russia has threatened to veto the Kosovo proposal.

This position in Kosovo is correct on the merits, but the motivation for making this statement now clearly has a lot to do with the missile defense dispute that continues to embroil Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bush is trying to send a message that will both irritate the Russians and demonstrate that Putin has little power to prevent the United States from getting what it wants. Unfortunately, I very much doubt that this will be the result. From what I've been told, the Russians have long expected Kosovar independence and have already adjusted to its likelihood. They'll use Kosovar independence as a precedent for stronger action on two ethnic Russian enclaves in Georgia and one such enclave in Moldova, pressing either for formal independence or greater autonomy. Far from demonstrating Russian weakness, the independence of Kosovo will give the Russia a perfect opportunity to lean even more heavily on two of its unfortunate neighbors.

--Robert Farley