Yes, the Balkan interventions did lead to connectivity

■"Macedonia makes progress on path to membership of EU," by Daniel Dombey, Financial Times, 9 November 2005, p. 3.

Way back when, a fellow Naval War College professor wrote a nasty letter to Esquire about my article, "The Pentagon's New Map." In it, he dismissed the notion that our efforts in both war and peace in the Balkans across the 1990s constituted integration into the Core. He could write with this sort of confidence because he's an expert on the Balkans.

Well, I maintain that he's still full of shit on the subject, besides suffering a pathetic sort of professional jealously.

Macedonia is announced to be worthy of "candidate status" by the EU. Macedonia joins Croatia in such a migration. Won't be easy, and won't go fast. But it began when America and NATO decided to intervene and change history.