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Additional U.S. Troops Requested For Liberia
Geez! Will the whining and begging to get us in this quagmire shithole never stop?
With so few Nigerian peacekeepers in Monrovia that residents are forming their own patrols, the head of the West African force appealed to the United States today to send another 120 to 150 Marines ashore.
Just a few more, then a few more, then...
Nigerian Brig. Gen. Festus Okonkwo said he asked the U.S. commander in the region, Maj. Gen. Thomas Turner, to essentially double the current Marine deployment in Monrovia to shore up the badly overstretched West African contingent. "Everybody’s complaining STFU then ," Okonkwo said, as he awaited the arrival of U.N. cargo jets transporting 176 more Nigerian peacekeepers to Liberia today, bringing to 1,000 the number of West African peacekeepers here. "We are trying, but we don’t have our full contingent." Okonkwo said he asked for Marines to boost the peacekeeping presence on Bushrod Island, a sprawling section of north Monrovia that the rebels vacated Monday. Only 30 Nigerian soldiers are stationed on the island, and residents have complained of gunfire and marauding government militias after sunset. "I want white rich people on the road," Okonkwo said.

Okonkwo commands the peacekeeping force deployed earlier this month by the Economic Community of West African States, at the request of the U.N. Security Council. After president Charles Taylor stepped down under international pressure and exile into exile in Nigeria Monday, President Bush sent the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit to provide support for the West African force, but their mission remains unclear. U.S. Harrier jump jets and AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters added a dramatic punch to what appeared to be a joint deployment on Bushrod Island, which rebels had held for three weeks. But the U.S. presence here remains light and tentative. The United States dispatched 4,350 Marines and sailors to the region aboard three ships. On Wednesday about 60 Marines who arrived by helicopter at Monrovia’s seaport flew back to the USS Iwo Jima before dark. They returned the following day to finish erecting a fence near the main dock but have not been back since.

About 150 Marines remain at Monrovia’s international airport, about 40 miles outside the capital. A spokesman said the Marine quick reaction force has orders only to stand by in an abandoned building. The Nigerian continent was scheduled to double in size by Friday. But delays continue to plague the deployment, despite a $10 million U.S. contract to Pacific Architects and Engineers, a U.S. firm, to hasten the arrival of the West African force. U.N. officials, who expect to take over the stabilization force in two or three months, estimated that 5,000 troops are needed to secure Monrovia, and that the entire country will require a force of 15,000 peacekeepers.

Diplomats, meanwhile, awaited word on negotiations taking place in Accra, Ghana, between rebel leaders and Liberia’s new president, Moses Blah, over the structure of a transitional government. Under terms of an agreement being hammered out in Ghana, the government Taylor left behind would be replaced in October by a transitional government. Officials had hoped to announce final agreement on the pact today, but Blah returned to Liberia empty-handed late today after bickering between the two rebel groups, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, or MODEL. "I’m trying to be an optimist," said one source monitoring the talks, noting that LURD has made good on its vow to leave Bushrod.

Residents on the island said government militias remain their main problem. The undisciplined young men armed and left behind by Taylor are notorious across Liberia for stealing and raping. "They bust your door in on you and try pulling you out," said Thomas Mufaya, 25. The street in front of him was marked at regular intervals by the remains of tires set afire last night by residents seeking light and security. "Vigilante action," said Milcolm Ledlum, standing on a main road flanked by an abandoned police station and the headquarters of the Liberian Electricity Corp.. "Things are a little bit shaggy right now, that’s why the Americans don’t want to come," said Frank Warah, who lives in New Cru Town neighborhood, where shots were heard again last night. "The Americans are a little bit afraid."
Afraid? Cautious? Intelligent? Not willing to be suckered into this 3rd world commode where everyone’s wearing brasseires and tube tops and AK47s? If that’s your definition of afraid, so be it ....see ya!

I disagree. We're afraid to go in, and with good reason. The predictable you can handle. Even in the Middle East, where the enemy's vicious and bloodthirsty, things are at least predictable. We have the measure of the Paleos' collective insanity, for instance. The Liberians — or at least the segment of the population that makes up Chuckland — are crazy, too, but in an entirely different manner from the Arabs or the Paks, who are tiresomely predictable. We can't predict what the Liberians, as exemplified by Benjamin Yeaton and the other remaining Chuck followers, will do next because they don't know themselves. All we know is that it'll involve treachery and dead people. If you can't predict, you can't make plans, and if you can't plan you can't solve problems. Who wants to get into a — dare I say it? — quagmire, where there's no solution in sight because there's none to be found?

Posted by: Frank G 2003-08-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=17717