US Troops in Liberia Until October 1

Just announced on CBS Radio News. That teh Marines will be replaced with UN peacekeepers.

Doesn't say what year, however.......

(I'll post a link as soon as I can find one.)

(Edited to change title to title of link I found.)

US troops in Liberia until October 1

From correspondents in Crawford, Texas

19aug03

US President George W Bush says United Nations troops will replace US forces deployed in Liberia by October 1.

"We'll be out of there by October 1," Bush said, according to an interview transcript the White House released today.

"We've got UN blue-helmeted troops ready to replace our limited number of troops," Bush told Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in an interview last Thursday.

Some 200 US soldiers, including a 150-strong rapid reaction force, arrived in the war-wracked nation last Thursday to help shore up a west African ECOMIL peacekeeping force by helping to secure Monrovia's port from rebels.

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http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6999267%255E1702,00.html

Wow, what commitment. Seriously, there's like, what 1 company worth of U.S. troops there right now? How sad.

and not Iraq? Liberia should have U.S. forces, as well as other U.N. forces there. At least in Liberia the troops are appreciated. Way to go monkey boy! Kill off troops in something needless and pull out troops where they are needed. What kind of screwed up logic is that?

Seems the Bu$h team really has a lot of double standards when it comes to their foreign and military policies. For Saddam the entire weight and force of the US Military was required to enact regime change, while for Liberia we can barely muster up the willingness to send 20 troops 2 months after the country goes through a brutal civil war and 1000's of people are killed.



http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/17/1061059718557.html

Pentagon's deaf ear to Liberia SOS


As Liberia's humanitarian crisis intensified last month, the Pentagon quashed a report by its own specialist team calling for immediate United States intervention to stop the fighting and allow delivery of emergency aid, a US official said

<snip>

The team urged the US to immediately send 2300 marines to stabilise the country and protect civilians, several officials said.

<snip>

The assessment team's superiors at European command told the group to rewrite the report, taking out the specific recommendation to send in troops and focusing instead on humanitarian problems, and to deny to anyone curious about its conclusions that it had submitted a report at all until after Mr Bush completed his Africa tour, said an official, who asked not to be named.

The handling of the report suggests that the Pentagon tried to ensure that its conclusions reinforced the Defence Department's intention to stay out of Liberia. "You have to know your boss's intent before you develop a plan that fits his intentions," said a defence official, who asked not to be named.

:dem: