The National Liberation Army of Macedonia, made up of ethnic Albanians, exists and torments the Macedonian government today because NATO, and therefore the United States, allowed it to exist in a different form during the war in Kosovo. To pretend, as President George Bush seems willing to do, that the United States can play no role in the current fighting in what once was southern Yugoslavia, is to pretend that U.S. planes never dropped bombs on Belgrade.

The administration of the elder George Bush stood by while freedom-seeking Bosnia became a battlefield; the Clinton administration stalled getting involved in Kosovo until the reports of ethnic cleansing became so gruesomely prevalent that it had no choice. The current administration may argue that the United States has no interest in war at the edge of western Europe, but of course it does, economically if nothing else.

The Macedonia government cannot hope to wage a limited fight against the guerrillas in the six or seven towns they currently occupy without creating support for the Albanians regionwide. Whether the fighting spreads to Greece or Bulgaria will depend the ability of NATO to give the guerrillas a forum to air grievances without offending the Macedonian Slavs. Without sending more soldiers – the United States already has 400 or so troops there – the Bush administration can provide an alternative to fighting and at the same time a warning that the United States will protect the principles of a civilized democratic government as it currently exists in Macedonia over a specific ethnic group.

The administration can accomplish this in the person of Secretary of State Colin Powell. He has world stature and a reluctance to engage militarily unless all other options have been tried, making him both respected and safe to talk to. A meeting with Mr. Powell and the Albanians would, first, provide a break in what appears to be the Macedonian government’s commitment to bomb the guerrillas out of the occupied towns and, second, make way for further talks to more specifically identify the Albanians’ charges and demands.

President Bush’s hesitation about getting the United States further involved in the decade-long conflict in the former Yugoslavia is understandable. But two previous administrations have shown poor results by trying to wait out the situation. Better to engage without the military immediately to discover whether fighting can be avoided entirely later.