US medic who would not wear the blue beret goes on trial

An American soldier went on trial yesterday at a US army base in Germany for refusing to wear the United Nations blue beret, an offence which has rekindled debate at home about the country's global role.

Michael New, 22, an army medic, is accused of "refusing a legal order" but the defence and their conservative allies argue that it is US participation in peace-keeping missions that should be in the dock.

His gesture, the first of its kind in the US army, has become a cause celebre, rallying patriotic right-wingers against President Bill Clinton's policy in former Yugoslavia.

Mr New refused to don the blue headgear and epaulettes on 10 October when his unit in southern Germany was ordered tojoin a UN peace-keeping mission in Macedonia.

He argued that as he had sworn an oath of allegiance to the US, wearing another uniform would be disloyal.

"It is not that he didn't want to go to war with his unit," Colonel Henry Hamilton, who heads Mr New's lawyers, told the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. "The issue is, is he going to go as an army soldier or as a minion of the UN?"

His "heroic" deed captured the imagination of the American right. In Texas, Mr New's home state, citizens staged demonstrations in support of the medic. Mark Gilman, a Houston talk-show host who addressed the rally in Conroe, the soldier's home town, called Michael New "a hero".

The tide of protest rapidly swept into Washington. Last month 43 Congressmen