The proper response to the Kosovo peace accord agreed to last week by NATO and Yugoslavia is caution. Caution because agreement is easy, and implementation is not; the lesson of Bosnia is that making an enduring peace is a long and tedious process. Caution because Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is a shrewd gambler who will extract every possible advantage out of a deal; he has shown an unnerving ability to stay one step ahead of his interlocutors. And caution because the forces that inflamed the Balkans may flare yet again.
But there are also reasons to celebrate, and not only because a ground war -- a potentially brutal slog through hostile terrain -- has been averted. In the plainest terms, the West won. The deal that Yugoslavia agreed to is almost identical to that proposed at Rambouillet earlier this year. The Serb forces will withdraw from the region, an international peacekeeping force will be introduced, the more than 1 million Kosovars who have been driven from their homes will be allowed to return and the province will be given substantial autonomy from the central government in Belgrade.
NATO acquitted itself well during the conflict. It stood together through an 11-week bombing campaign and, despite several tragedies involving civilians, its unity was never threatened. Despite steady criticism, its strategy was vindicated: An air war forced the Serbs to the negotiating table. And, remarkably, the West did not lose a single soldier's life to fighting (although several were killed in accidents away from the battlefields).