Deadline Met, Sort Of

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION MET ONE LAST DEADline -- kind of, barely. Officials had said they hoped to at least begin a pullout from Somalia before Bill Clinton's Inauguration. Lo and behold, in the final hours of the Bush presidency about 1,100 Marines were beginning to come home. Besides redeeming Bush's pledge, the move was clearly intended to prod the United Nations to hurry up in creating a regular peacekeeping force to take over from the U.S.-led ad hoc troops. American Marine Colonel Fred Peck, a military spokesman in Mogadishu, hopefully suggested that U.S. troops could begin to pass authority to the U.N. as early as Feb. 1.

Fat chance. Creation of a force cannot start until the Security Council passes an authorizing resolution, and no drafts are yet circulating. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has discussed with some U.N. members possible troop contributions to a force that might exceed 20,000. But he has had only perfunctory contacts with President Clinton's advisers, and no one seems to be discussing the vital question of rules of engagement -- that is, under what circumstances the peacekeepers could shoot. So the 25,000 U.S. and 12,000 other foreign troops remaining in Somalia may be stuck for weeks or months, and their duty remains hazardous. Last week Chief Warrant Officer Gus Axelson of the U.S. Marines took a bullet in the right shoulder while riding in a convoy in Mogadishu. He was the third U.S. military man wounded; one has been killed.