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| Africa: West |
| Bush: Liberia Force May Just Be Advisers |
| 2003-07-10 |
| EFL President Bush suggested Wednesday that any U.S. military help in ending brutal civil unrest in Liberia might consist mostly of advisers and trainers to avoid stretching American forces too thinly around the globe. ``We won’t overextend our troops, period,’’ Bush said at a joint news conference with South African President Thabo Mbeki, who had pressed him on what role the United States would play in the crisis. African nations want the United States to do more to end the bloodshed in the western Africa nation. But U.S. lawmakers, including some leading Republicans, have questioned the wisdom of yet another major overseas military entanglement with so many troops already on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Still weighing a final decision, Bush noted that the Pentagon had already trained African peacekeepers, including those from Nigeria and Senegal. ``It’s in our interest that we continue that strategy so that we don’t ever get overextended,’’ he said. Bush has invited U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the head of U.N. peacekeeping and the head of U.N. political affairs to the White House on Monday, according to a United Nations official in Washington. While it was not clear that Liberia was the topic, Annan has said in the past that he who would like to see the United States lead a multinational peacekeeping force there. We ought to play hard to get, really hard to get. On the second leg of a five-nation Africa trip, Bush promoted his $15 billion, five-year plan to combat AIDS and proposals to increase trade with sub-Saharan Africa. His first stop was Tuesday in Senegal. Still ahead: visits to Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. White House aides said the Iraqi war did not come up in the talks between Bush and Mbeki, who was critical of the U.S.-led military action there. But with U.S. troops in Iraq coming under increasing attacks, questions have been raised at home about whether Bush should commit still more troops to easing civil unrest in Liberia. Lawmakers of both parties have said that Bush should first get congressional approval for such an action. As it should be. Both Bush and Mbeki suggested that the U.S.contribution might be mainly of a non-combat variety. ``We need a lot of support, logistics-wise and so on,’’ Mbeki said. Mbeki said that the military burden in Liberia peacekeeping ``really ought to principally fall on us as Africans.’’ There’s a good idea. In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the president was considering the appropriate U.S. role. He said Bush has told world leaders that he intends to assist Liberia, a nation that was founded in the early 1800s by freed U.S. slaves and has retained close links with the United States. Rumsfeld noted that ``assessment teams’’ requested by the president are still in the region. Bush has said he will not make a final call until these teams report back. On Wednesday, U.S. military advisers came face-to-face with the dreadful cost of Liberia’s war, wading through wards at the once-prestigious John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia that overflowed with wounded - some nursing bandaged stumps. Time to remove Charlie. Past time. |
| Posted by:Steve White |