PRESIDENT CLINTON'S commitment of troops in Bosnia for another 18 months of peacekeeping and in Zaire for humanitarian relief is a telling reminder of how much U.S. military policy is changing after the end of the Cold War. Confrontation with the Soviet Union, with mighty armies squared away at the Iron Curtain, has given way to low-level brush fires. The trouble is Mr. Clinton has failed to explain these changes to the American people and, in fact, has resorted to obfuscation.

America's "vital interests" are not threatened by internal conflicts in the likes of Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and East Africa. While the president may be convinced intervention is a proper way for the United States to exert its super-superpower role, he knows, as foreign nations also know, that such risky actions are inherently unpopular on the home front.