For one thing, it never occurred to us that one nation might take upon itself the role of policeman to the world, and offer its services to bully any bully into compliance.

In mergers and acquisitions this is known as the "white knight" strategy, and it basically never happens — a powerful stranger riding to your rescue for ostensibly altruistic reasons.

But Clinton did it, overriding the objections of many European countries to force NATO to bomb Milosevic until he resigned. Clinton's strategy was a surprising success - he obtained the desired results at a minimum cost to our troops.

He did bomb the new Chinese embassy in Belgrade, however, for which bad feelings linger today.

Astonishingly, Bush has elected to follow in Clinton's footsteps, despite campaigning against this very approach to solving world problems.

There is no question he has the firepower to achieve success as great as Clinton did with NATO in the Balkans.

But there is grave question whether it will make the world a safer place — because, we believe, information technology has continued to evolve, in a way that does not smile on the "white knight" scenario.

The reason is that the "Three E's" are not in place — a tight grid of global agreement on the topic of removing Saddam and his Baathist government.

Also, because the centralized technology of warmaking, which favors the U.S. on the conventional battlefield, does not favor the U.S. in a terrorist or guerrilla war.

For transcompetitive solutions to work, the entire world has to oppose the bully in question. If there is a significant hole in the alliance, then there is the potential to strike back against the "de-bullying bully" with technologies that are miniaturized and decentralized, and massively powerful.

So far no one has figured out an effective way to combat suicide bombers or suitcase nukes. Their arrival on the scene, and the willingness of disenfranchised people to use them against others, creates a new chapter in the complicated story of peace and negotiation.

A "white knight" has no defense against a nuclear check. At this writing, we don't pretend to have an easy answer.