Liberia Destroyed

The country that was founded by American slaves is no more. No one wanted to help. No one did anything. No one cared. No one gave a damn.

UNITED NATIONS - Liberia is "basically destroyed" and its only hope is for the international community to quickly send more money and soldiers to stop the killing, the U.N. special representative to Liberia said Thursday.

Jacques Klein, an American, welcomed news that Nigeria planned to send the first troops of a multinational force, but expressed doubt they could arrive within the promised seven days.

Klein also welcomed the U.S. decision to provide $10 million to help the peacekeeping force deploy and urged the United States to play a greater role.

"In Liberia, now we stand between two options: hope and disaster," he said after briefing the Security Council behind closed doors.

Rebels in Liberia are battling to oust Charles Taylor, a warlord-turned-president who launched the country into 14 years of near-perpetual conflict in 1989. Fighting in the capital Monrovia has killed hundreds of civilians since Saturday.

The United States has not said whether it would contribute soldiers the peacekeeping force in Liberia, a major African Cold War ally of the United States that was founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves.

John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador indicated the United States would not send troops.

www.washingtonpost.com...

Liberia destroyed? What's that? About U.S.$100.00 worth of damage? Did anyone catch Bill O'Reilly's interview with Charles Taylor? He emphatically said he would leave, but needed to leave with dignity. Of course, he is probably just buying time, though.

Dude, the whole country is gone, dead people everywhere. No government. Noting. The country is literally destroyed.

Why blame America for not intervening? Why not blame Charles Taylor for being an arsehole?

Originally posted by Freddie
Why blame America for not intervening? Why not blame Charles Taylor for being an arsehole?

could'nt have said it better my self

Colonel, are you just starting to realize, or have you not realized yet at all, that what's happening in Liberia is NOT a Liberian problem.

All African nations suffer the same fates...all sub-saharan nations that is.

Sudan has fought a civil war for over 25 years, the longest running Civil War in the world.

Somalia falls in second.

Communist rebels blasted the hell out of Botswana.

Hutus kill Tootsies (wrong spellings? lol), in Zaire.

Ruwanda and Uganda saw some of the worst cases of ethnic cleansing in modern times.

Zimbabwae has been pushing whites off their lands, handing them over to officers and party officials, whom know NOTHING of farming, and in a matter of years have managed to destroy their entire agricultural economy. Which has not only hurt them, but ALL of Southern Africa.

The most stable nation south of the Saraha, is South Africa. And even they are having a hard time stopping agitators from persecuting whites and burning properties.

Liberia, is just one of some 27 flamming nations in Africa.

Of course they are in Civil War, if their own people didn't cause it, some greedy man with guns from some other war-torn part of Africa would have gone in and started one.

And this all boils down frankly to Clinton...whom of course, while Liberia's blood began to boil...he of course went "Safaring" to win the "heart of africa."

Well Africa's always been a Dark continent, to match Clinton's Dark heart.

The situation in Africa has nothing to do with Western politics.
Africa is a continent whose people care only for themselves.

That may sound harsh but unfortunately it is true.

Conditions there mean that one group of a people in a nation are always looking to beat down the rest of the population of their country.

Liberia has been troubled for years, yet Nigeria sits next door and does nothing. A country that could walk in and restore peace as easily as any Western power can, has chosen to sit there for years and let her neighbour rip herself apart.

Africa will only get peace when Africa wants it. No matter what the West does.

Maybe you didn't think about how profound this topic could become when you posted it. I think (and please forgive if I'm jumping to an errant assumption) that you posted this to make some statement against the admin not taking more of an action. Another repugnant republican poke, right?

BUT, I would like to state something about what others have already pointed out in this thread. With the exception of South Africa (which would need another thread to discuss what has been done to that country), the sub-saharan nations do have this same problem - over and over and over.

As far as I know there is no other continent that has, in the 4 decades I've been here, seen more in-fighting and self-genocidal acts than the African continent.

It's due to a singular mentality that they will not give up.

TRIBALISM.

They refuse to put the good of the people above their tribal pride. They refuse to use reason and compassion and compromise to bring peace and nationalistic prosperity because of their tribal pride. The tribe comes first. And it is THEIR tribe's way, or most times death.

And there are a number of members of the 2 major tribes of the US political system that frequent this board that right now would benefit greatly (and so would the poeple around them) if they would learn vicariously through the mistakes of these people of the African continent.

The US is preparing to send troops, but is also awaiting responses from several other African nations in respect to a "joint peacekeeping force" verses just US troops alone.

Taylor is not making things any easier. Then on top of that, the inner fighting between factions is certainly hampering the current situation in Liberia, in regards to Liberia being "destroyed."

regards
seekerof

Originally posted by Valhall

TRIBALISM.

And there are a number of members of the 2 major tribes of the US political system that frequent this board that right now would benefit greatly (and so would the poeple around them) if they would learn vicariously through the mistakes of these people of the African continent.

Hmmmmm...

1. Why don't we all just get along?

(I can't do that. The Bush administration has got to go, for the good of the whole planet).

OR

2. Kill all your enemy and eat them before they do it to you.

(Nah. I respect my fellow creatures too much).


Thinking.

They wanted US as peacekeepers how dangerous is that?!

[Edited on 25-7-2003 by drunk]

Come over to the "A Note to the Republicans" thread and sing and dance with me a while and soon we'll be one big happy family.

come to the light sweetie

The problem in Africa is not a Republican one or a Democrat one.

The US Civil War was the last battle of Tribalism fought by the US.

The only recent Western comparison that can be made is in former Yugoslavia where the tribal instinct was allowed to roam free after the death of Tito.

Although Africa is the oldest continent, in many ways, it's people are children. Three million have died in a civil war in the Congo, a million in Rwanda, and millions of others in Angola, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast to name but a few.

The West knows that it cannot return to Tribalism. Only those who vote for politicians for themselves and not for their country still cling to it.

I just have one questions regarding Liberia...

How many UN member states are there in Africa, who could have sent forces into Liberia as peace keepers? How many other UN member states could have done likewise? Why is it the US obligation to come to thier rescue?

I think it all comes down to a matter of evolution

Originally posted by kitty
I think it all comes down to a matter of evolution

And this coming from a girl whose major accomplishment in life is designing dildos.

So let me figure this out. When a country which poses NO threat to the US, has no historical connection to the US, and has a stable but despotic government, we need to blow them to hell to "liberate the people."

Yet, a country which HAS historical ties to the US and is falling apart with murder and bloodshed running rampant, well, F' them.

Ok. I see now.

What the U.N. wants is a political peace keeping force at their beckon call in Liberia that can't make a move without going through its relentless channels for authorization to return fire. Thats crap and thats what happened in Somalia. Former president Bill Clinton expressed regret for getting into that by saying..


"We had this huge battle in broad daylight where hundreds of Somalis were killed and we lost 18 soldiers in what was a U.N. action. ... I think I will always regret that. I don't know if I could have saved those lives or not. I would have handled it in a different way if I'd had more experience. I know I would have,"



No thanks U.N., if the US goes in anywhere, our guys will handle making their own calls..after all our guys are trained to be the best in the world at assesing a situation and reacting accordingly. Most members of the UN haven't been out of the dark ages all that long. You can bet that under this president ..or any other president be he/she democrat or republican, US troops will not have their hands tied by the beaurocrats at the UN. When the guns come out, politics is over. I don't disagree with the US getting involved but our soldiers will not be at the mercy of those idiots at the UN.

Originally posted by astrocreep
What the U.N. wants is a political peace keeping force at their beckon call in Liberia that can't make a move without going through its relentless channels for authorization to return fire. Thats crap and thats what happened in Somalia. Former president Bill Clinton expressed regret for getting into that by saying..


"We had this huge battle in broad daylight where hundreds of Somalis were killed and we lost 18 soldiers in what was a U.N. action. ... I think I will always regret that. I don't know if I could have saved those lives or not. I would have handled it in a different way if I'd had more experience. I know I would have,"



No thanks U.N., if the US goes in anywhere, our guys will handle making their own calls..after all our guys are trained to be the best in the world at assesing a situation and reacting accordingly. Most members of the UN haven't been out of the dark ages all that long. You can bet that under this president ..or any other president be he/she democrat or republican, US troops will not have their hands tied by the beaurocrats at the UN. When the guns come out, politics is over. I don't disagree with the US getting involved but our soldiers will not be at the mercy of those idiots at the UN.

I can agree with that.

Colonel:

Not that I agree with allowing Liberia to self destruct, but that the rest of the UN should be chipping in as well. I agree that may not be the best solution, but the US is otherwise occupied.

As far as Iraq not posing a threat to the US, this is incorrect. Iraq did not pose a MILITARY threat to the US but it posed a very serious economic threat to the US. Iraq publicly stated it intended to force a vote in OPEC regarding the adoption of the Euro as international oil standard currency, replacing the dollar. This would rob the US dollar of any hard asset backing, and would result in an immediate collapse of the US economy on a scale never before seen. The dollar would fall in value further than the yen or peso, and we would end up in a depression, drawing the bulk of the world economy into a depression so bad that only global world war would stop it.

This is the TRUE cause for the invasion of Iraq (and the likely cause for the future invasion of Iran, and possibly Saudi Arabia, as both countries also favor this currency change). This is even less of a popular reason for the war, which is why it has been pawned off on the WMD scandal.