The sad truth about war journalism is that the details always lag months and years behind the cease fires. During the Gulf War, for example, we all thought that the Patriot defense system was a highly effective shield against the Iraqi SCUD missile. Afterwards, of course, we learned that the Patriots were almost totally useless, that our troops were saved by badly aimed Iraqi artillery. What we've learned too late about our air campaign against Slobodan Milosevic is that World War III almost started.

General Wesley Clark, the supreme commander of NATO forces, ordered a strike against the Russian army who, after the Serbs withdrew from Kosovo, swept in to occupy the Pristina Airport. See, Clark wanted to occupy the airport and he didn't want to share it with the Russians. British General Michael Jackson, in command of the NATO ground forces, refused Clark's order saying: "I'm not going to start World War III for you."

If we had bombed, it probably wouldn't have led to a nuclear exchange. But that's only a "probably." It might well have started a sequel to the Cold War. Without any oversight, without any accountability to the American people or the people of Europe and the world who would have been affected by U.S. military action against Russia, Clark got trigger-happy. That's why Clark has been removed from his post after winning a war -- which is too little too late. If Douglas MacArthur had a child with Dr. Strangelove the son would be named Wesley Clark, the man should just not be in charge of highly destructive weaponry.

Clark, by the way, was secretly planning for a ground war while President Clinton was promising the American people that we wouldn't be fighting on the ground. Clark stopped going to press briefings early on in the war, completely removing himself from public scrutiny. Clark ordered the bombing of the Serbian power grid, plunging the country into darkness and killing babies and adults on life support in hospitals. It was an action which the NATO military lawyers, who are supposed to make sure we follow the laws of the Geneva Convention and don't unnecessarily punish civilian populations, were worried about. No big deal, though. Only leaders of small countries are brought up on war crimes charges anymore.

All this makes General Wesley Clark seem like a sadist, and war is full of such types. Milosevic is far worse than Clark, yes, but that's not the point. Clark is our guy, he's supposed to represent our ideals and values, and he's supposed to serve the American people. Instead, he acted in isolation and almost brought us into conflict with Russia.

The worst part about it is that we didn't know this while it was happening. There was no chance for the public to express disapproval. Secrecy and independence from public scrutiny are the military's greatest tools. You can't fight a war by Democratic proxy, and the opinions of the people don't really matter on the battlefield, we civilians are often told.

But wars don't happen in a bubble, the effects of even the smallest wars ripple outward and eventually engulf the world. The fight between the Kosovars and the Serbs was once just a little war -- a regional civil conflict. The fighting in Somalia was local. The Gulf War started as the war between Iraq and Kuwait. Yet we became embroiled in all those conflicts because no war can be contained to any region. You'd think, after a century with two world wars and one angry Cold War, that we would have realized this by now.

The world got lucky too many times in the Balkans. The Chinese eventually shrugged off the embassy bombing, the Russians convinced Milosevic to back down before a ground invasion became the only solution, and British General Jackson kept Clark's hands off the trigger when he was eying the Russians. The post Viet Nam refrain that politicians shouldn't run the wars, is still with us. In Serbia, Clark had to answer to each of the NATO countries, the Pentagon and the White House -- some say the war would have ended faster if not for all the political involvement. But even if we accept that, we have to wonder how brutal Clark would have been without someone looking over his shoulder.

Michael Maiello thought that "World War III almost started" stories were now just Cold War relics. Surprise!