HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
July 3, 2003 President Bush has been asked by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to send 2,000 American troops to Liberia to quell the civil violence that has plagued the West African nation since 1981 when political factions rose up against one another. The ties run deep between the U.S, and Liberia going back to 1822 when President James Monroe dispatched American soldiers to escort ashore the first freed American slaves returning to Africa. There, they founded the Republic of Liberia with a U.S. style declaration of independence and named Monrovia as its capitol. Liberians have always felt they have had closer ties and allegiance to America than they have with their African neighbors. In 1989, the current president, Charles Taylor, who graduated from the Libyan training camps of Moammar Kadhafi, began an uprising against president, Samuel Doe who had led the coup and assassination of the then President William Tolbert. Doe was elected president in 1985 and executed in 1990 by members of Taylor’s political party, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia. In 1997, Taylor was elected president of the country. All hell broke loose when Taylor’s Liberian forces launched an offensive against rebel forces in the north who have been waging a three year campaign to drive out Taylor and his party faithful. Which just goes to show you that rebels don’t always have to be the “bad guys” when it comes to American style politics. President Bush has asked President Taylor to step down and leave the country. Liberians, faithful imitators of American culture with their Masonic temples and evangelical Protestant churches, wonder why America, their father land, remains aloof from their current troubles. ”Once America steps in, the peace process will be smooth and simple; the nightmare will end,” asserts one Monrovia resident. One solution to their dilemma would be to find oil in Liberia, then Bush will send American troops there, in a patriotic heartbeat, to establish the peace. Grateful Liberians might even want to change the name of their capitol city from Monrovia to Bushington. ------------ About the author: Bobbie Hart O’Neill is a retired print media journalist, CSU-Sacramento, ’74, with 40 years experience in the field. She has worked as a reporter, feature writer, columnist, public relations writer, magazine/newsletter editor and publisher. She is currently a freelance writer residing in Yuma, Arizona and has published a children’s book, written three screenplays and a novel. In addition, she is interested in civic affairs, politics, current events, ethnology and animals. Email Bobbie: bobbieo@digitaldune.net Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
