- MONROVIA -- With Bush's credibility
on the line, American troops head toward Liberia. But are they ready to
assert their power?
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- It would be hard to design a more tragically absurd war
than the one raging in Liberia. Battles are fought mainly by untrained,
doped-up kids from the countryside, and no one on either side has effective
command of the ragtag militias.
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- The majority of casualties are civilian. Most combatants
avoid fighting, preferring to spray bullets at the other side and then
run. The rebels' only stated goal is the ouster of President Charles Taylor,
a recently indicted war criminal who insists he is willing to step down
and go into exile in Nigeria but keeps creating excuses to postpone his
departure. In any case, the opposition is so fragmented and unpopular that
there's no obvious candidate to replace him.
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- So it is that even as hordes of angry Liberians dumped
dead bodies at the gates of the U.S. embassy in Monrovia in a desperate
plea for American help last week, Taylor held a state funeral for his beloved
mother, who died of natural causes, complete with a military band and gospel
choir.
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- Unfortunately, the insanity of the situation on the ground
is matched -- and perhaps exacerbated -- by the diplomatic dithering over
how to bring the war to an end. Almost every day, it seems, Liberia's neighbors
hold another planning meeting in Senegal and pledge to send in several
thousand peacekeeping troops, only to put off decisions on the specifics
of the mission for a few more days.
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- The Bush Administration says the Africans must take the
lead in any such operation and that President Taylor must go into exile
before U.S. troops will play any role. But Taylor insists he will not leave
until peacekeepers arrive, and many Africans believe that only the U.S.
can restore some semblance of order.
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- The last time Nigerian peacekeepers did a tour of duty
in Liberia, in the mid-'90s, they were notorious for their looting and
pillaging.
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- Will the U.S., which has historical ties to Liberia,
get involved? The Bush Administration took a tentative step in that direction
late last week, saying it would send ships to the waters off Liberia and
contribute $10 million to help fund the logistics of moving West African
peacekeepers into the country.
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- The announcement followed by several days an order from
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to move the ships into the Mediterranean
Sea, where they could reach Liberia more quickly if called upon.
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- The Administration's language was so tortured that it
could mean almost anything -- or nothing. The "appropriate military
capabilities," the White House said, would be on a mission of "limited
time and scope" to help "support" a West African peacekeeping
force.
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- At the very least, that means three ships, carrying close
to 5,000 Marines and sailors, should arrive in the waters off Monrovia
within the next two weeks. What they will do once they get there is unclear.
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- A U.S. military official says the mission does not involve
separating the combatants or enforcing a cease-fire, and others have insisted
that any deployment would not last more than three to four months. President
Bush stressed that the U.N. "will be responsible for developing a
political solution and for relieving the U.S. troops in short order."
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- With the U.S. military stretched by conflicts in Afghanistan
and Iraq, it is not surprising that the Pentagon and many members of the
Administration have resisted an active peacekeeping role in Liberia. Bush
has always made a point of saying he would not let American armed forces
become a global police force.
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- Only Secretary of State Colin Powell has been a relatively
outspoken advocate of intervention in Liberia. He admitted to the Washington
Times last week that the Administration could have done a better job of
rallying a peacekeeping force and argued that "we do have an interest
in making sure that West Africa doesn't simply come apart."
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- But while the folks in Washington recall the consequences
of failing to prevent genocide in Rwanda almost a decade ago, the same
people remember well what happened the last time a President Bush sent
U.S. troops into Africa.
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- To this day, the military is haunted by the memory of
the 18 soldiers who were killed in the 1993 mission to stabilize Somalia.
General Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a
congressional hearing last week that Liberia "is not a pretty situation,
and it's not going to give way to any instant fix."
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- If it weren't for the President's trip to Africa earlier
this month, it's possible the U.S. would not be weighing such an altruistic,
risky mission at all. Bush dangled the prospect of U.S. intervention in
Liberia at least in part so that his trip would not be dominated by the
issue, according to a senior State Department official.
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- Now Bush risks hurting U.S. credibility if he doesn't
follow through, argues Chester Crocker, Assistant Secretary of State for
African Affairs under President Reagan. "If you walk away from this,"
he says, "there's a price."
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- Last week's vague declaration of help was not exactly
cause for celebration --� either in Monrovia or at the U.N.
"I don't trust the news anymore. I want to see action on the ground,"
says Ernest Diallo, 35, who is living in a tent camp housing 25,000 war
refugees inside the U.S. embassy's residential compound.
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- "We are hearing news every day that 'they are coming,
they are coming,' but we keep dying." Said a U.N. official of the
U.S. statement: "It's reasonably welcome, but it's not the same thing
as a military commitment."
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- Only a month ago, Liberians welcomed the prospect of
U.S. intervention. Americans were treated to the rare sight of foreigners
waving U.S. flags rather than burning them. Founded partly by freed American
slaves in the early 19th century, Liberia has long looked upon the U.S.
as a kind of godfather.
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- Its flag is a single-starred version of the Stars and
Stripes, its capital is named after James Monroe, and many residents speak
English, often with a trace of a Southern twang. Mamadou Bah, 53, whose
sister-in-law, nephew and two brothers were killed by a mortar attack on
the makeshift refugee camp outside the U.S. embassy, is angry that the
Americans have not yet come to help. But if they do, he says, "everybody
will be so proud of them."
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- For now, though, the few U.S. soldiers stationed in Monrovia
to defend the embassy are greeted not with cheers but with shaking fists.
"To a certain degree, the Americans have already blown it," says
a Western aid worker in Liberia. If the U.S. intervenes, he says, "rather
than saying thank you, Liberians will be saying, 'It's about time.'"
Unless, as many in the international community fear, they're saying it's
too late.
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- - With reporting by Massimo Calabresi and Eric Roston/Washington
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- Copyright © 2003 Time Inc.
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- http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/28/timep.liberia.tm/
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