So is it KosovO or KosovA?

At long last, it's happened. Birth of a nation. Pop the bubbly. Kosovo is a state.

The whole process was carefully stage managed (state managed?) by the US, so as to avoid any overt 'up yours' to Serbia. No songs glorifying dead independence leaders killed by Serbs, etc.

Thus far, it's all gone pretty much according to plan. "President George W. Bush and leading European allies offered diplomatic backing to Kosovo, pledging to support the newly independent state in the face of Serbian and Russian opposition....France and Britain became the first EU countries to extend diplomatic ties to Kosovo." Serbia "vowed restraint" and Russia called an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to protest, saying there was "no legal basis'' for the proclamation and that it should be "disregarded by the international community.''

No legal basis?

Russian Amb. Vitaly Churkin might want to brush up on his UN Charter, specifically Article 1, Section 2. "The Purposes of the United Nations are: to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples."

But who reads that dusty old thing anyway?

Besides, the fun part is that self-determination, like terrorist or freedom fighter, means just about anything you want it to mean. Either way, no word yet on any Russian recognition of Abkhazia. All that will have to wait till after the party dies down.

Kosovo still has no economy to speak of, no highly-valued natural resources to export, and generally exists off of the good will of foreign donors, NATO peacekeepers, and the trade in sex workers to supply said peacekeepers.

But so much for all that. Let's all strip off our shirts and give a guzzle from the ram's horn.

Welcome to the party Kosovo. You are in for one long ass Eternal Remont.