Posted on 07/02/2003 3:15:35 PM PDT by faithincowboys
Liberia was on our list of responsibilities a long time ago. This is not a new addition.
Exactly!
We don't seem to be concerned with even the "pretense" of adhering to the Constitution anymore :-(
This is more a diplomatic issue than anything else.
Taylor has said he will go, there are other African nations who want to try him in the ICC, and he won't leave because of that.
This is one of the fruits of that ridiculous ICC: dictators who will die in place, and take as many of their people with them as they can, rather than take exile, because they're afraid the "international community" will come after them.
If Al Qaeda is in Liberia, you just convinced me of the necessity to go in. Didn't we pledge to wipe out Al Qaeda after 9/11? No place to run, no place to hide. We will follow Al Qaeda wherever they go. And any nation that harbors them is the enemy.
Neither you or I are in a position to know but if I had to guess, I would say that our military is far from being overextended. Did we not dislodge the Saddam regime in less than a month? Sure, there is some sloppy mopping up to do but all in all, huge success. Whatever military resources we need to handle the Liberia situation will be a fraction of those that we used against Iraq.
All I ask as a taxpayer and an American is that if we go in there, we do the job right.
BTW, Africa is such a hell-hole, isn't it? If I was a black American, I'd be thanking myself everyday that my ancestors were taken over here instead of left over there.
I've read and heard there are Al Queda cells in Detroit yet I haven't seen or heard of any action, military or otherwise, there. So what kind of message does that send ???
They're talking about sending 500-1000 men. What kind of message does it send to the world if we send in a puny little force, without proper heavy equipment back-up, whose sole purpose is to hold the coats of the French and hand out candy bars to the kids during the occassional photo-op, and all the while al Qaeda is shipping terrorists and weapons into the country, forming up it's newest base of operations, and recruiting new members to carry out attacks on our people? Somalia redux. Except it will be even worse, since we will have the EU socialists actively collaborating with the enemy, handing out all kinds of intelligence in exchange for promises to only attack US targets.
And you know this is what's going to happen - if we go in there with any serious force, or undertake any serious ops designed to root out and destroy enemy forces, the liberals, the State Dept., the media and the UN pukes will screech and cry and rail against US "imperialism." And all the while leftist scum like Fat Teddy, the Stainmeister and Howie Dean will be gleefully waiting for the video of our guys' corpses being dragged through the streets, just in time for the election.
Going into Liberia will make the Somalia fiasco look like a model of smart operational planning.
One must study the history and thinking process of those who could and would want to do you harm. Once you face the terms of their driving force that causes them to behave the way they do you must deal with them in terms familiar to their way of life(or death).
Most the world is no better than tribal bands, feeding on each other. If the conflict is not in Europe, some of Asia, Some of South America, or on the Isle of Guernsey, the only solution is horrible devastation. It's all they know. Just because they have a seat and an office at the United Nations does not make them civilized or human.
Once the first candybar comes out, we become confused and so do the friggin natives.
"Glorious victory is at hand thanks to Allah and our martyrs. The Americans are terrified about even facing our brothers in Liberia. - Abdul-ahman Aziz.
Get my point?
If I had faith that the job would be done right, I would be a lot more agreeable to sending troops in there. I believe that President Bush will want to do the job right, but I also believe that there are lots of others who will want the mission to be a total and abject failure, with lots of messy US casualties, so that
a. the US will be "properly" humbled and humiliated, and
b. President Bush will be severely damaged politically going into the 2004 elections.
Since these people infest every level of the media, the State Department, the EU, the Democratic Party and the UN, they can bring enormous pressure to bear on Bush whenever he takes any kind of action that threatens to harm their interests (that is, of course, any action which helps our troops accomplish their mission). I do not underestimate the depths of depravity, perversion and outright hatred for America that these people will sink to in their unbridled lust for power.
That was Clinton's policy for Afghanistan too, and you can see where it's gotten us. Willful neglect is no longer an option.
Intervention is Liberia is completely justifiable under the Bush Doctrine of preemption. For our national security, it's better to prevent a problem from occurring than to react to one after it has occurred.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." - Benjamin Franklin
I would say, maybe the Senate, yes, yes and it's too early to tell.
The only important "enemy" in this equation would be public opinion. Once support for the mission goes away, our chances of success plummet to near zero. Unfortunately, the lesser enemies you cite know this all too well, and would invest all their time and energy into turning public opinion against the Administration. A nation's leaders cannot make these considerations the make or break conditions for engaging in action, as you correctly point out, but they certainly cannot totally dismiss them either.
With the 9/11 attacks and Saddam, the actions in Afghanistan and Iraq pretty much sold themselves. The public didn't need much convincing that these were worthwhile jobs to undertake. Liberia is going to be a much harder sell, and as a result public support will be much more fragile.
As for France, as soon as my kids cubscout troop gets back from airgun practice they'd be happy to go straighten Chretien out.
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