Once again as we have seen so many times before with Bosnia, Iraq, and Kosovo, it is the eve of an ultimatum before threatened NATO air strikes, if no agreement is reached at Rambouillet. Unlike the last time around here, in October when Holbrooke pulled what every one knew was an untenable agreement out of his hat, the common consensus amongst the cynical is that nothing will happen.

So I spent the day getting mud all over myself in some KLA trenches on the front line, where all was quiet as both sides wait with baited breath. Then I came back back to Pristina for the nightly photographers’ poker game in the Media Center of the Hotel Grand. Standard ante: one dinar, which is 8.5 to the dollar. Maximum bet: 5 dinars. Maximum rounds of betting: 3. Of course it is still easy to lose your shirt, but I managed to drop only 20 dinars. The waiter kept coming around with the beer that we ordered and reminding us, “This is not Las Vegas. This is Iraq.”

Nonetheless NATO’s credibility is on the line more than ever. So while the politicians grind on and on, if nothing gets signed, bombing will be certain. It’s doubtful what good that would do, but short of invading Serbia, which will not happen, it’s the only way to punish Milosevic, with whom I think the West has finally run out of patience.