Principle drafted in a vacuum are of little value, The lofty concept of rejecting "aggression and ethnic cleansing" sounds very appealing. The problem is, the principle ignores the price.

And the price cannot fail to be exorbitant. We must not delude ourselves into thinking that American intervention will only involve air strikes and military aid. What happens after the air strikes fail? After the embarrassing debacle in Somalia, can we really expect the Clinton administration to lose additional face by turning away from the Balkans? All we can expect is an escalation of involvement and a concomitant loss of American lives.

Those who are willing to bear this risk (or to consign others to bear this risk) would be wise to remember that the foremost duty of the United States government is to its own people. In this case, American soldiers ought not to be expended for the sake of a people and a nation that have absolutely nothing to do with ours.

As for the lofty principle of deterring aggression, that is better achieved by lifting the arms embargo, which has to be one of the most counterintuitive policies of this day. Until then, let the Bosnian conflict remain, in President George Bush's words, a European problem.