On a street in the ruined city of Grozny, Russia, there is a moment of silence. Innocent civilians and Chechen fighters mingle among the ruble. Then, without warning, the silence is split as Russian fighters screech low overhead. The bombs the fighters drop now splinter and deploy hundreds of grapefruit-sized grenade-like devices. Covering the area of two football fields, these bomblets explode for a long 30 seconds, creating a flurry of steel ball bearings penetrating armor, concrete and clothing.

During the same dreary winter day on a highway leading into Grozny, a Russian motorized rifle division is deployed in haphazard groups. That night, following the orders of inexperienced officers, they sleep inside their armored vehicles. In a brief ambush, Chechen fighters descend on the Russians like wolves, overwhelming the small groups of recently drafted soldiers. Some are taken prisoner, others are shot or incinerated inside the "protective" shells of their deathtrap tanks.

Christianity is once again fighting Islam. The Islamic world is once again outraged at the Christian world with its willingness to kill Muslims by the thousands. Bosnia, Iraq and now Chechnya all add fuel to a hatred that has been present since the earliest moments when a conquering Islam and the Christian world came into contact. Today Islam is at war with the outer world not for expansion, but for survival. Muslims in Iran, Afghanistan and the rest of the Muslim world watch, as fellow Muslims are told to leave their homes and then butchered. Because of Boris Yeltsin's mistake, the fight between the Slav and the Muslim has once again erupted.

Mujahadeen forces, fighting for Islam and freedom, defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and have now left for Chechnya. College students native to Grozny, who recently were studying engineering, now design homemade weapons.

It would seem that Russia has a long-term guerrilla war on its hands. Russian draftees, many in their late teens and early 20s, lack the training and will to win in the bloody house-to-house fighting. Few can be prepared for this kind of carnage.

Just when hyper-inflation was coming under control, and reform was slowly occurring throughout the politics and economy of Russia, Yeltsin launches a war against a people. Russia has 10 million Muslims living within its borders. All of them are enraged by this act.

Unlike the Serbs in Bosnia, the Russians have little confidence in the war that Yeltsin and his drinking buddies have started. The already weak Russian army has been subjected to an extreme military defeat by U.S. military standards. Conscripts have been leaving the field of battle, surrendering outright and even jumping off of troop trains heading toward Chechnya. Incredibly, even the best special forces troops have been given an embarrassing defeat as several hundred have been taken prisoner. The death toll for Russian troops has, by some estimates, reached 2,000 in just two short months. The Chechen rebels have been merciful to many of the prisoners who are identified as draftees by releasing them. The Spetznaz and special interior ministry troops are shot outright.

Yeltsin is personally responsible for initiating an attack that has gone out of his control and resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians, Russian troops and even Russians in areas surrounding Chechnya. Yeltsin is now seen to be a dangerous and foolish drunk. Pavel Grachev, the formerly heroic defense minister, does not know what his troops are doing. I doubt if he even knows their exact location.

The only reason that Yeltsin has launched this attack is to preserve Moscow's and therefore his, power. This goal was important. Now I am not so sure.

Russia is now adrift and rumors of a military coup are seriously examined. The dangers of a weak Russia, at war along its borders with Muslim and other populations, are enormous. With no real assurance that Yeltsin is in direct control of his military, how can foreign governments be sure that he is in control of Russia's nuclear weapons? Defense spending in the United States will certainly need to rise, as an anti-ballistic missile system becomes a necessity.

Yeltsin has betrayed the heroic virtues that made him stand on top of a tank, and defeat the August 1991 coup against Gorbachev. Vodka is a wonderful tool of oppression. Yeltsin was a hero.

The Clinton administration should quietly condemn and stop comparing the revolt in Chechnya to the battle of Gettysburg. That is an insult to Maj. General Meade.

Western culture and power are still seen as enemies of Islam. The danger of a wider war all along the southern borders of the Russian empire could result in the fall of the Russian government (what little there is of it) and a cementing of legitimacy for Islamic radicalism (comparable to Christian radicalism, i.e. shooting receptionists).

Yeltsin must now finish the disaster he started and win this bloody and stupid war, for if he does not he will be finished. The survival of democratic reform in Russia as well as world peace depend on his actions. Next time, hopefully vodka will be left out of his decision process. Yeltsin has little time, for he has unleashed the dogs of war, and they have bitten him.