



Although American officials have reacted with alarm to a new outbreak of violence in Kosovo -- including attacks on peacekeepers -- they shouldn't be surprised.

Nastiness is woven into the social fabric of that Yugoslav province, populated mostly by ethnic Albanians. Those folks and Yugoslavia's Serbian majority have written their joint history in the blood of ethnic and religious conflict for hundreds of years.

Did the Clinton administration really believe that the situation would improve after the United States and it allies invaded Yugoslavia to end a civil conflict in Kosovo last year? That the multinational peacekeeping force sent in to chaperone the defeated Yugoslavs would rid the country of ethnic and religious tensions?

If U.S. officials believed that, they were off the mark.

As current events underscore, they continue to miss the mark -- especially when U.S. officials talk about sending even more American troops to Kosovo, as happened this week .

U.S. troops should head in only one direction -- out of Kosovo. The longer they stay, the more risks they take, the more mired they become in an unending crisis.

President Bill Clinton almost single-handedly created that sticky mess when he pushed for aggressive U.S. leadership in taking military action against Yugoslavia. That role should have gone to Europe, which has the greatest stake in a stable Yugoslavia.

Now, with the war over, the United States still plays too prominent a role, providing some 5,300 peacekeeping troops -- the largest contribution of any country.

Although France has taken it upon itself to respond to recent violence with a promise to send in more French soldiers, that doesn't address the problem of U.S. troops in Kosovo.

In truth, neither France nor any other country with peacekeepers in Kosovo can hope to solve the province's problems.

If, in spite of the impossible challenge, Europeans and others wish to stay on in Kosovo, that's their choice. But the United States, which has carried far too much of the burden, would have no reason to apologize if it disentangled itself.

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