WASHINGTON -- Leave it to NATO to turn a problem into a crisis. Two years ago, America spurred ethnic Albanian separatism by kicking Serbian forces out of Kosovo. Today NATO is fomenting civil war in Macedonia by its maladroit intervention.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. In 1999, the West proclaimed its determination to promote democracy, halt ethnic cleansing, and create stability. For that reason, NATO ignored 350 years of international law and launched an unprovoked war against Yugoslavia, a nation that had neither attacked nor threatened any member of the alliance.
The consequences have been ugly.