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Sunday, July 20, 2003
posted by gbarto at 4:45 PM:
Things getting ugly in Liberia. Le Monde reports heavy fighting and a vow from the supposedly outgoing president Taylor that he and his troops will fight to the last man to keep the capital out of rebel hands. Mr. Bush needs to issue a short statement reminding Taylor that he's promised to go and assuring that the US led peacekeeping force could have the capital well in hand and the rebels free of any need to try to take it were Mr. Taylor to turn up in Nigeria tomorrow instead of mucking about his departure. We probably need to add that the US will have no part of any peacekeeping force before there is peace and that if Taylor won't go as promised we will feel regret, certainly, but absolutely no sense of responsibility, for anything that happens to him and his men as the rebels take the capital. Ugly, yes, and with ugly humanitarian consequences. But thus it is, however bad we feel about it.Here's the thing: The people of any country bear the costs of the leadership they allow. However unkind it sounds to insist that they are accountable for who runs their country, in a way they are for they inevitably pay the costs. No amount of fussing about unfairness, the powerlessness of the people, et cetera, can change this: in a country with crappy leadership the people suffer. Which brings us down finally to this equation: The time for revolution comes when the costs to the people of allowing the present leadership to continue exceed the dangers of effecting his (or her) ouster. The time has come for a great number of Liberians, which is why they either support the rebels or are indifferent to their rule as opposed to that of Taylor. And if Mr. Taylor will not ratify the significance of events, we'd best let nature take its course, for it will one way or another anyway. At the end, we can help pick up the pieces and do our best to prevent post-war humanitarian disasters. But until Taylor is gone - as he surely will be - we should stick to the sidelines.
This raises the question of the contrast with Iraq and reaffirms something the TurkeyBlog has been talking about that does certify him as soft of heart but not a blithering humanitarian. Why did we pick sides in Iraq and even to some ways of thinking start the war (Saddam forced it by his refusal to abide by the surrender terms of the last one but we'll take that up another day)? We did so because we had a compelling interest in a) removing a thug who financed and encouraged threats to our friends - Israel in particular - and to the general peace and seemed to want to hang onto and procure weaponry with which to further make a nuisance of himself (from Fr. nuire, to harm, injure or, etymologically, bring the black of night upon, cf noxious) and b) sending a message to other thugs about the inadvisability of taking up his ways. This is why the blather about the Iraqi people, potential resentments, etc, is ridiculous. We fought the war to be rid of Saddam. Endeavoring to create a better future for the Iraqi people was merely a nice touch of class and a way of attempting to prevent the ascension of another Saddam while freeing us of the obligations that full-fledged colonialism entails.
So, here's the final word if the above paragraphs got a bit overdone: Bad times in Liberia, but the US must stay out until there's a peace to keep, while preparing faux condolences if Taylor winds up dead in his efforts to cling to power. In the meantime, we'll act in Iraq because we had a mess we needed to clean up to serve our purposes and we'll be there until our purposes our served. If the Iraqi people wish to make the bettering of their interests harmonize with our purposes, we'll be delighted, but we should have no illusions about whose cause we're in Iraq for and should make our own interests the paramount consideration in any actions we take.
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