Sometimes readers can get it so wrong a reply is demanded.  John E. Philips (May 22) is one, attacking "Europe" over Bosnia.  I am neither European nor American, but Philips, an American, says Bosnia is "Europe's" problem.  It is not.  Only too much belief in his own nation's parochial press and political posturing makes him think it is.

    First, Philips says: "America is tired" because it "saved the world from Nazism and Communism."  Wrong.  Russia, with a bit of industrial and other help from America and others, saved the world from Nazism.  This is just military fact.

    America, on the other hand, nearly lost the world to Germany and Japan when, in the late 1920s and 1930s, its isolationism meant it would not act at a time when only it was powerful enough to exert the influence that might have averted world war.  America only entered when direct attack forced it to, and its miniscule casualty rates reflected its actual contribution to the conquest of Nazism.

    As for "saving the world from Communism," the people of Russia and Eastern Europe did that, when an impossible to operate system collapsed of its own weight in the normal time frame.

    Perhaps Philips might mention Vietnam, but that didn't "save the world:" non-Americans just thought America had gone mad.  And even in Vietnam most of the casualties were taken by South Vietnamese forces who far outnumbered American combat forces.  Of the foreign combat units, only two-thirds were American.

    Why is America so tired?  In none of the above affairs was America losing its industrial and economic capacity: World War II in particular was the greatest industrial boost to America there has ever been.  How does it get so tired when it loses not much treasure and very few lives?

    As for Bosnia now, unlike all the other countries that for the past 40 years have been taking casualties in U.N. peacekeeping, America has been taking almost none.  The simple fact is, the European and others have tens of thousands of troops at risk in former Yugoslavia.  The U.S. has only a few hundred far from the war zones.

    On the other hand, and this is simple fact, America, the world's economically and militarily most powerful nation and the world's third most populous nation, is vastly bigger than any of the "European" and other nations currently risking troops there.

    Moreover, it is the only one, just like in the 1920s and 1930s, capable of ensuring a victory in Bosnia without massive casualties to all involved.  Forget all the posturing, this is simply objective fact.

    If Philips wants "Europe" or anyone else to "save" Bosnia, put a matching number of U.S. forces on the ground there and the world will, unlike in 1939, feel confident that their own people aren't going to die while America trumpets its "victories" after the event.

    If not, then stop criticizing those at present getting shot at, including, in particular, those European nations that have lost far more in lives and treasure fighting for "freedom, civilization," etc.,  than America ever has.  All we are seeing now is the sorry spectacle we witnessed in 1939 of "the world's greatest power" walking by on the other side.