An Act Of War?

[HARDCORE]

The news has it that ?Rebel Forces? are shelling the United States Embassy grounds, as well as surrounding turf in Monrovia, Liberia!? Apparently, there are some, even outside of politics, who mean to have a war there!? Hell, (again according to the news hawks), some 50 or so, dead and decaying bodies have already been staked up in the area (Sovereign U.S. Territory) around the Embassy!

So I ask you: "How long will it be before we too begin to take serious casualties in Liberia, like in Somalia, or, as it was when our Embassy was stormed in Teheran (Iran)? And most importantly, what will our response be - "or need I ask!?"

I don?t know what the President?s opinion on this is (hell I don?t!!), but I?ll bet you dollars to donuts that: "If those 'Former American Slaves & Rebels in Monrovia' opt to overtly attack our embassy or our 'PEACE-KEEPING TROOPS' - Force Will Be Met With Force", and so it begins perhaps?! ?So where this will lead - at this point, is anyone?s guess?!?

Of course, if history is the gage of progression and escalation, then that same history just might opt to repeat itself (AGAIN)!? At that point, my only question will be: ?What in the hell are we doing in Liberia (and a few other places) anyway, and will it be the continuing policy of some in world power to perceive even a ?Misdirected Foreign Fart, Many Thousands Of Miles Away? as an open act of aggression, aimed against freedom and liberty!

?If this is true (?), then we have indeed become the ?Policemen To The World?, and the ?New Foreign Legion of Humanity, the U.N. and even NATO!?

Hell, I thought we told the "United Nations" to go screw itself, and that "We The People (sorry George)" would decide what was in ?OUR OWN? best interest? Apparently, since the end (??) of Gulf War II, the U.N., the Europeans and even the Kofi-Man, have been working behind the scenes to regain the reins!? (opinion)

So let me ask you this, and please answer honestly: ?If we (USA) ever do something to really piss-off the United Nations, do they too retain the option of sending foreign troops into American streets, or trying American nationals in their Belgium-Based Kangaroo Courts?"

Naturally, our Yankee spirit would not tolerate such an invasion or internal interference by alien entities! No more so in fact, than those farmers did at Lexington, Massachusetts, some 228 years into the past. And again, no such foreign action, initiated upon American soil, could ever come to pass, could it?! ?This would be a violation of our Constitution, and the Monroe Doctrine!?

?Hey, this brings us back to paragraph #1!!? Wasn?t it this same "President James Monroe (U.S. Honcho # 5)" who envisioned a (far removed) nation (Liberia) for our freed slaves? A place for them to live in freedom, peace and harmony!! (Oops!?)

Or did Monroe, a man of great wisdom, insert an addendum that demanded of us (the future responsibility) to free these slaves anew, should they opt to blow each other away?

?Where, if ever, will this stop?!?

?It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world!? (George Washington, September 17, 1796)

Our ?NEW GEORGE?, however, doesn?t seem to always share this view, but then Washington wasn?t running for re-election, now was He!?

?Naturally, President Bush would never mix politics with personal ambition, and as such, any analogy is purely academic!?

VERITAS

[blues clues]

remember HC they like US, just like in Iraq they like us or thats what the president and rummy the dummy keep saying so just remember when the bodybags start piling up these troops were killed by our frends.just keep saying they like us?????
razz

[HARDCORE]

"THEY LIKE US, huh?"

Initially, so did Iran, Iraq, Somalia etc.! Hell, even Ho Chi Minh once woed our friendship (1940s I Think?), or so it was reported?

Ah yes, with friends like these? (indeed, indeed!!)

VERITAS

[Seascamp]

Without being handicapped with specific knowledge, I would assume that financial inducements and awards become available to those who would make open season on US Troops. I would further assume these inducements and awards were not available prior to actually having targets available to take potshots at. Maybe it?s something akin to ?money talks and BS walks?, but in reverse. So then, wading and sloshing around in a cesspool not of our making or choosing has a definite down side and costs beyond measurable bucks. Now, if we further slide into this mess and decide to do another stupid deal where we put troops at great risk without proper back up, then we learned nothing from Somalia. All due respect to Sec. Powell, but if State is running this deal in Monrovia, I have grave fear the next ugly intense episode will find our Troops under equipped or under armed because we perceive the need to have some stupid ?happy face? on. I wish I could have some cause for optimism when it comes to State and their stir-stick crap, but I don?t. Some call State ?foggy bottom? but I?m not sure it?s that good. Maybe they have a case of long-term institutional fog and mental fog, I don?t know, but they sure run with their front wheels in a ditch a lot. And this has all the earmarks of another wild ride of Mister Toad.

Scamp

[HARDCORE]

Could be Scamp, Could Definately Be!!

VERITAS

[sfc_darrel]

U.S. Embassy in Liberia Hit by Mortar Fire; Deaths Reported in Capital City







Monday, July 21, 2003

MONROVIA, Liberia ? The situation in Liberia went from bad to worse Monday as mortar duels between government and rebel forces killed more than 90 people in the capital, Monrovia (search), with one shell striking the commissary on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy.

At least three people were confirmed injured in the commissary attack; aid workers told Fox News' Jennifer Eccleston, holed up in the embassy grounds with other journalists, that some people had been killed.

Far more devastating was a direct hit on the diplomatic residence compound across the street, in which 25 people were killed. An estimated 10,000 refugees had taken shelter from the fighting in the compound.

Enraged Liberians lined up at least 18 bloodied, mangled bodies from the compound in the street outside the embassy. Some shouted, "We are going to die for nothing," as two embassy guards watched from behind bulletproof glass.

Helicopters delivering a detachment of 41 Marines from the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security (search) Team, clad in green camouflage, body armor and helmets, loaded up with about 25 or 30 fleeing Western aid workers and journalists before taking off again for the safety of Freetown, capital of neighboring Sierra Leone (search).

"We're concerned about our people," President Bush told a press conference in Crawford, Texas.

"We are strongly condemning the rebel group ... for their continued reckless and indiscriminate shelling of Monrovia," said State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker.

The Pentagon also announced that some 4,500 more American sailors and Marines have been ordered to position themselves closer to Liberia to be ready for possible duty in the embattled West African nation.

The mortar incident came as Liberian frustration grew at an apparent diplomatic Catch-22.

Bush has said U.S. peacekeepers won't land in Liberia until warlord-turned-President Charles Taylor (search) leaves. Taylor has pledged to resign and accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria - but only after peacekeepers arrive.

Aid organizations were evacuating staff from the area; some were even leaving the country. The embassy had already been downsized considerably and strong warnings had been issued to Americans to leave.

One of those being evacuated to Freetown, aid worker Eleanor Monbiot of World Vision (search), said that her organization had to stop food distribution on Friday because workers were hunkered in a compound.

"The situation is very dire," Monbiot told Fox News, adding that the looting is particularly rampant in the center of town. "In fact, this is the worst attack we've seen on the city in recent years."

Major Bill Bigelow, a spokesman for U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, said an American reporter was injured outside the embassy and two local security guards were hit. Tom Masland, the African regional editor for Newsweek, had three pieces of shrapnel in his arm.

Bush on Monday said during a news conference on his Texas ranch with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi that he would work with the United Nations to help restore a cease-fire.

But he indicated that he hadn't decided on the size of the U.S. peacekeeping force.

"We continue to monitor the situation very closely," Bush said.

Reeker stressed that the United States is waiting for the Economic Community of West African States (search) to take the lead in Liberia. West African nations are planning to send more than 1,500 soldiers to enforce the often-violated June 17 cease-fire.

"Clearly, we want to see the ECOWAS troops deploy, as they have discussed," Reeker said. "We want to do what we can to support that. The president will make appropriate decisions at the time."

It was unclear whether Taylor's government troops even had mortars. The hits on the embassy may be indiscriminate fire, since the rebels have said they did not want to target the embassy because of the Americans inside and the tens of thousands of refugees in the area.

Taylor over the weekend ordering his militiamen to fight in the streets and go house-to-house to quash the "evil forces" of rebels. He said he would not abandon his people and would only go into exile after peacekeepers arrived in Monrovia, Taylor's only remaining stronghold.

Meanwhile, military officials at the Pentagon told Fox News Monday that with the worsening security conditions in Monrovia, they were "waiting" to hear that the Marine expeditionary unit - under the command of U.S. Central Command's Horn of Africa anti-terror task force - had been ordered to the war-ravaged West African country.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said that though they had no information that the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (search) had yet been ordered to West Africa, they did know that the amphibious assault ship that serves as the Marines' floating base, the USS Iwo Jima, was in the Red Sea and "on the move."

Even if the ship were heading toward West Africa, the trip could still take a week and a half. But officials said they fully expected to see orders moving the Marines to Liberia in short order.

The State Department has called for an immediate cease-fire by all parties and a focus on continuing peace talks in Ghana aimed at setting up a unity government to oversee fresh elections.

The department last issued a travel warning June 6 for Americans in Liberia, saying "periodic inflammatory statements in the local media regarding U.S. policies and presence in Liberia could also incite violence against American interests."

Liberians are weary after 14 years of bloody turmoil. Many said they would not believe stability was possible until U.S. peacekeepers landed in the country.

"We hold George Bush responsible for this mess," shouted a member of Taylor's elite Anti-Terrorist Unit.

Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (search), the former Nigerian military ruler mediating peace negotiations in Ghana, also appealed for an end to the fighting.

Reeker attributed the attacks to the rebel movement Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (search).

"There is a cease-fire that needs to be upheld, and all of the parties in Liberia have responsibilities to see that that happens, in the interest of the future of Liberia, as well as the immediate safety of the Liberian people in Monrovia and those that are there to help them," Reeker said.

Officials for the LURD insisted they were only trying to pressure Taylor to step down.

"We're not trying to do a military takeover," LURD delegate Joe Wylie said in Ghana. "But we can help to speed things up. Since Taylor signed the cease-fire, he is running his mouth and amending his promises. We want to apply a little pressure on him. We want him to leave now."

Taylor launched Liberia's last civil war in 1989, emerging in 1996 as the country's strongest warlord. He was elected president the following year, and now faces rebels who include former rivals from the earlier war.

A U.N.-backed tribunal has indicted him on war crimes for supporting Sierra Leone's notoriously brutal rebels.

Fox News' Jennifer Eccleston, Ian McCaleb and Teri Schultz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[MORTARDUDE]

this is a classic no-win, no-win, no-win, no-win situation... as soon as we or the other unfortunate-peace-keepers leave, the cannibals, vampires, criminals, rebels, and psychos will continue their evil debauchery...sorry to be so pessimistic...IMHO..

Larry

DEO VINDICE

[sfc_darrel]

The problem with being pessamistic is that it is so very accurate. The good thing when things go right it is a nice surprise

[HARDCORE]

Gents -

Often (unfortunately), when one thinks that he is engaging in a bug-swatting operation (Liberia in this case), the bug fails to realize that he is just that - just a bug!?

This thing in Liberia is unpredictable at best (opinion)! As always, it is beginning with limited numbers, and hopefully it will remain controllable, if any armed engagement can be considered as such! "People on both sides, unfortunately, always die in wars!" And I am not so damned sure that Charles Taylor's departure alone, although essential, is the magic key to Liberian tranquility!

In my opinion, these people (Liberians) will always find some other excuse to continue the carnage, and it just may escalate!

Although (again) only my opinion, this whole mess (like most) is all about power and control, and when both sides (Rebels & Taylorites) finish, unless there is a force to keep them separated, this thing will fester and reignite in a heartbeat!

"So what does that leave - a force of occupation, mostly from the Dark Continent perhaps?!"

Occupation is a drain upon manpower, material resources, money, and of course - patience, with the United States supplying the lion's share of the first three! And when this game plan is extended to encompass several operations, almost world-wide, and all at the same time, the situation can get out of control, in short order!

"By the way, will someone tell me again - why in the hell are we engaging in Liberia?"

VERITAS

[BLUEHAWK]

I believe America can expect, sometime within the next decade or less, that there will be an "unexpected" very unusual and comparitively rather sudden "international community" and "global economy" attention being paid (and troops deployed, of course, in the "interest of national security") in various parts of the African continent.

Our "allies" will be China, Russia and (naturally) Britain. The "coalition of the willing" will be all those nations who have had colonialist dealings with Africa in the past 200 years or so.

The African continent is a VERY large and putatively untapped reservoir of natural resources and manpower, or so it is seen. At no time will it ever be forgotten how our government, other governments and the U.N. conducted foreign policy in Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria, South Africa, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Liberia, and all the other nation states of that place.

Watch as the emphasis shifts from the middle east to Africa. The "War against Terrorism" will eventually be declared won, ribbons will be worn, national military cemeteries will keep filling... but the endless irony of racial prejudices of every kind will have been let loose on an unimaginable scale which will occupy our economic and political world until the next millenium, at least.

It will be extremely interesting to watch how the Black Muslims, NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus et al handle these developments. Furthermore, it will just as interesting to discover how Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, Cuba, Nicaruagua and MALDEF et al position themselves.

America, China, Russia and India are the most likely nations to find themselves desperate to exploit (i.e. "develope"?) new human and material resources. If Britain ever fully joins the European Union, then it will become the fifth column.