August 01, 2003
FRIENDS, LIBERIANS, COUNTRYMEN
Read this introduction to Mark Steyn’s latest ...
What happened to Liberia? Only three years ago, things were going swimmingly, at least according to President Charles Taylor’s Ministry of Information: ‘We say “well done” to Mr President, and advise him to always keep the communication highway free and clear of any hindrance, so that a people-to-leader and leader-to-people approach can be adopted and maintained, so that everyone will at least have the opportunity to have the ears of the Chief Executive, instead of a select few.’
... and now click here for the killer paragraph that follows.
Posted by Tim Blair at August 1, 2003 02:03 AMReads like a bad episode of Fear Factor. Is there any hope for a country in which people believe a nice snack of raw private parts works better than Viagra?
Posted by: ilyka at August 1, 2003 at 02:21 AMSure there is. They only beleive that because they haven't been inundated with spam for Viagra.
Posted by: Scott at August 1, 2003 at 02:37 AMthat is one scary article, and sadly, i fear, exceedingly accurate.
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at August 1, 2003 at 04:13 AMWhy don't we just give them all light blue helmets, armbands that read "U.N." and call them peacekeepers. It works everywhere else, right?
Posted by: JorgXMcKie at August 1, 2003 at 11:42 AMWhat do you expect of a country thast appoints a gym boot president?
Posted by: Habib Bickford at August 1, 2003 at 12:07 PMWhy doesn't Bush follow the same policy of benign neglect towards Africa that every other president has done? Let them eat each other : it's no skin off our nose (or ear).
Posted by: Rob at August 1, 2003 at 12:38 PMAll the people who opposed our campaign to take out Saddam and attempt to reform the political culture of the Arab world that gives rise to terrorism are after Bush to intervene in Liberia. There are powerful political groups in the US slavering to send US troops there. An argument can be made that, although there is no direct US interest in Liberia, there may be an indirect one. If intervention in Liberia at the behest of the UN and other countries pays diplomatic dividends in other areas then it may be justified. I frankly doubt it will. They had better be big dividends too, for we are contemplating getting into a guerilla war in the jungle. Here is a real quagmire for the liberals to contemplate, and it's one they want us to get into. Plus we don't have the extra troops to make a long-term committment, the only kind that will actually bear fruit.
This is also an enormous can of worms, as Steyn points out. It is no in-and-out affair, as that twit Howard Dean professes to think. The best scenario I can think of, if we actually want to do some good and not just posture, is something like the USMC occupation of Haiti from 1915-1934. I doubt anybody calling for intervention is willing to see that. That's the best scenario, they get worse from there.
Posted by: Michael Lonie at August 1, 2003 at 01:25 PM"Ivory Coast is on balance better off with the French on the ground."
But it was all about coooooca!
Posted by: Andjam at August 1, 2003 at 09:26 PMheh. cocoa and coffee, andjam, to keep all those left-bank baristas in business...
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at August 1, 2003 at 10:26 PMSheesh. Mark Steyn seems to be predicting a quagmire.
Posted by: Andjam at August 2, 2003 at 12:59 AM