In your leader on the first anniversary of Kosovo’s independence you have little, if anything, to say about the event (“A Year in the Life of Kosovo,” February 14, 2009). That is as it should be, though, as the new country is a miniscule part of a much nastier jigsaw puzzle: the so-called Western Balkans. Everything you have to say about the troubled region, including your claim that the prospect of membership in the European Union is the only guarantee of its stability, is right on the mark. But you fail to even mention the real powers in the Western Balkans: America and Russia. It is they that will eventually resolve all the ongoing squabbles, no matter how worrisome, which is why the Union is rather quiet on the region’s future. Toothless, it knows its rightful place in world affairs. It is time for you, too, to recognize it.