President Clinton has authorized air strikes against a country with whom we are not at war, to end a centuries old ethnic conflict which doesn’t threaten the U.S., in a part of Europe which we have no national interest. Why are American soldiers being sent to die in this wasteland?

The President’s “moral imperative” is motivated entirely by the desire to sacrifice American soldiers as global policemen. The essence of his policy is, “We have a duty to prevent any more atrocities from occurring precisely because we don’t have a national interest in Kosovo.”

Yet, a foreign policy that abandons our interest is doomed to fail and can only result in tragedy. Already one U.S. plane has gone down, and despite hundreds of sorties by U.S. and British fighters, Slobodan Milosevic has increased his assaults on ethnic Albanians. Milosevic knows he has nothing to fear from us.

When our legitimate interests have been at stake, such as with Iraq and Osama bin Laden, America has demonstrated that it is only a paper tiger.

Given America’s past failures to defend its interests and the sacrifices of the current action, the bombing of Serbia is doomed to fail.

What is the solution? We must reject the sacrifice of American lives and declare that the United States exists for its own sake.

We must return to the idea that our military exists to protect America, not Kosovar autonomy, oppressed Albanians, Kurdish rebels or starving Somalians.

We must withdraw from this conflict, announce that our military will be used when U.S. interests are at risk and uphold this policy consistently. This is the only way to regain our credibility, protect America and prevent such deadly mistakes in the future.

Don Thompson

Boston