The issue in Afrika at the moment.
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#163
Posted 01 August 2003 - 11:43 AM
Wow chemical I can't believe you haven't heard about the situation in Liberia (west Africa).
Rebels there are killing lots of people in protest at the president [Charles Taylor]. They want him to stand down but he won't until peacekeping forces arrive. George Bush wouldn't send forces in until Charles Taylor stepped down and went to Nigeria (they have offered him exile), however I think Bush has now sent a small number of troops in.
Hopefully there will be peace for the first time in about 15 years.
Rebels there are killing lots of people in protest at the president [Charles Taylor]. They want him to stand down but he won't until peacekeping forces arrive. George Bush wouldn't send forces in until Charles Taylor stepped down and went to Nigeria (they have offered him exile), however I think Bush has now sent a small number of troops in.
Hopefully there will be peace for the first time in about 15 years.
#168
Posted 08 August 2003 - 1:43 AM
No, there's no oil in Liberia - their major export is timber. So assuming the U.S. won't go in on account the U.S. has nothing to gain is a bit premature - (as much as I dislike Bush's approach to foreign policy) the truth is we're only left with taking the U.S.' past behavior regarding what happened in Iraq and applying it to Liberia, and I hope we're all proven wrong. As far as the Western World is concerned, it has blood on it's hands regarding this whole mess - it's not necessarily just a U.S. thing, although the U.S. is responsible in many ways for supporting such a violent regime whose main source of income stems from the export of wood - which was subsequentially used to buy weapons. What's going on in Liberia is a tragedy - and it's so tragic there's no easy answers. The U.S. has strong ties to Liberia, it created it as a colony for returned slaves after the Civil War. It isn't often that a nation in the midst of civil war will actually have the existing government as well as rebel factions ask simultaneously for the U.S. to intervene as a peacekeeping force.
If anything, considering our historical ties to Liberia, we have a moral obligation to act as a peacekeeping force there. Liberia has asked that the U.S. intervene and now the U.S. is... what's the word... waffling. . I think people are afraid the situation there will reach Black Hawk Down proportions, but that's just what I've read. Bush hasn't decided either way whether or not Liberia fits into the national strategic interests of the United States - an investigative team was dispatched to assess the situation, and some troops have been stationed off the coast - but the hope of an actual U.S. intervention has been dashed because Liberians are losing hope. They feel the world is standing by while watching the slaughter of innocent people. They are desperate and angry. There is already so much on the U.S' plate, and the military is spreading quite thin as it is. I guess it'll be a matter of time before the we see what comes of this. This whole shit storm is just very very sad.
If anything, considering our historical ties to Liberia, we have a moral obligation to act as a peacekeeping force there. Liberia has asked that the U.S. intervene and now the U.S. is... what's the word... waffling. . I think people are afraid the situation there will reach Black Hawk Down proportions, but that's just what I've read. Bush hasn't decided either way whether or not Liberia fits into the national strategic interests of the United States - an investigative team was dispatched to assess the situation, and some troops have been stationed off the coast - but the hope of an actual U.S. intervention has been dashed because Liberians are losing hope. They feel the world is standing by while watching the slaughter of innocent people. They are desperate and angry. There is already so much on the U.S' plate, and the military is spreading quite thin as it is. I guess it'll be a matter of time before the we see what comes of this. This whole shit storm is just very very sad.
be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle