Jesse Jackson - "We are turning our backs on Liberia. Liberia remains a killing field on the back burner."
Al Sharpton - "The carnage must stop."
Maxine Waters - "We expect him to do what is necessary, make the decision, do what is necessary to stop this carnage and not sit back and wait, and hope that perhaps [the United States] will never have to go in. But it is stalling at this point."
Kofi Annan - "I believe that we need to pay urgent attention to the situation in Liberia, because Liberia today is poised between hope and disaster"
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin - "France took up its responsibilities in the Ivory Coast, the United Kingdom in Sierra Leone, and the United States has a special tradition in Liberia."
Howard Dean - "I believe that the US must do its share."
Conversely, Who has reservations about intervention?
Michael Ledeen - "I've been in favor of doing something in Liberia for years — but I don't think it should be with American troops"
Mona Charen - Liberia is a mess that will be difficult to fix, and we're full up with other messes -- namely Afghanistan and Iraq -- to clean up just now.
Senators Mitch McConnell, Pat Roberts, and John Warner
Generals Richard B. Myers and Peter Pace, chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Donald Rumsfeld
The left supports intervention in Liberia because the U.S. has no national interest there and they want U.S. forces spread around as thinly as possible. They want our troops to serve as potential targets in UN peacekeeping missions.
Peacekeeping and humanitarian missions are not normally evaluated as military missions, since they are seen as an operation other than war. The fundamental assumption is that everyone can see that the intervening power is neutral and therefore will not attack his armed forces and further, that no one would dare harm those forces. Therefore, the normal calibration of forces required to carry out the mission does not take place. The force is either measured in terms of the humanitarian mission, or is seen as a symbolic presence whose safety is guaranteed by the inherent unwillingness of warring parties to provoke the United States.In a certain real sense, therefore, peacekeeping forces are there as hostages. The implicit threat is that whichever side violates the peace must pass over the bodies of the peacekeepers. - SOURCE
Jesse, Liberia and Blood Diamonds
What Do We Owe Liberia? - The latest reparations case
Foreign Policy and Self-Interest: Liberia Campaign Would Be a Moral Crime
The cruelty of what we supported and basically financed in Katanga--indeed, provided the logistics for--has to be revisted and studied to be fully comprehended. (Incidentally, I am not being mean spirited in attributing the policy to Dean Rusk personally. After extensive correspondence to his Office, which was ignored, my then Congressman, who was one of the most Conservatvie in Washington at the time, got into the act and finally got me a specific answer, as to who was responsible for our Katanga policy. The answer was unequivocal, Dean Rusk.)
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
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