July 03, 2003

Bush weighs sending troops to Liberia

 President Bush is expected to decide today whether to send U.S. troops to Liberia to lead peacekeeping efforts, a move opposed by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and top brass at the Pentagon.[Thank you, Rummy!--Jen]
[...]
Mr. Bush, who has opted not to send peacekeeping troops to several nations, including Congo, and campaigned in 2000 on a platform of limiting such deployments, reportedly told top Pentagon officials that troops involved in the Liberian operation — should he deploy them — must be given a clear mission that includes an exit strategy.
    
The president is expected to make a decision before departing for a five-day trip to Africa, with stops in Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. In recent days, Mr. Bush has been touting the U.S.-African partnership — which will be the major theme of his trip — and some expect the president will announce the deployment of troops to Liberia when he meets today with African journalists.
[...]
France, Britain and both sides in Liberia's fighting also have pushed for an American role in a peace force for the country founded by freed American slaves in 1847.
The current round of fighting in Liberia began three years ago as rebels began trying to oust President Charles Taylor, who won contested elections and took the presidency in 1997 after a 1989-96 civil war.

So...put the two events together of this civil war over Taylor and the one that preceded it and Liberia's basically been fighting over this for the last 14 years at least, but they appear to need US help now?
Please don't send our Marines, President Bush!
Not only is the "fun meter pegged" for our armed forces at the moment, but if we send troops to Liberia, why shouldn't we send them to the Congo, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria's had some problems...the Central African Republic, Sudan's had a brutal civil war, etc., etc., etc.
If only Bush didn't have this Africa trip scheduled.
And right after his birthday on Sunday, too.
I'm sure we all wish the good people of Liberia well and we don't want any more innocents to die, but we don't have limitless troops or the inclination to commit them wherever and whenever there's trouble.
Besides, France, Kofi Annan and Dimocrat Prez candidate Howard Dean all like the idea of sending our soldiers there, so I know it's got to be terrible.
It has the potential to be a real Mogadishu-like quagmire and I think that's why these Lefties like it so.
Sounds like a job for those UN blue helmets, if you ask me!
(For once.)