On Liberia and the BBC
Thank you for your patience. It appears that the Summer news lull may be coming to an end. With President Bush’s “Bring ‘em on” comment last Wednesday and the “Flypaper” scenario gaining credance, we may finally have an alternative to the “quagmire” analogy that better fits the facts. Add to this the likelihood that we may sending troops into Liberia, terrorist attacks in Iraq, Pakistan and Russia BUT NOT THE USA and there is again much to write about.
Let’s start with Liberia. In my humble opinion, one of the greatest failures of the international community and the United States government in particular was to stop the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. At the time, there was plenty of excuses not to intervene – no American/international interests involved, “those people have to work it out themselves”-type excuses, the humanitarian F-UP in Somalia the previous Autumn – good solid, realistic reasons not to intervene. Too bad they were all wrong.
Rwanda wasn’t Vietnam. Hell, Rwanda wasn’t even Saigon or even Da Nang. Rwanda could have been saved by a small force of well armed American marines who would simply point their M-16s at people and tell them to “put the god-damned kitchenware down and go home”. Doing this could have saved 800,000 lives. The international community, especially the United Nations, France and yes, the United States all screwed up.
Whenever you hear Clinton get all “holier-than-Bush”. Whenever you hear “St. Jimmy” Carter talk about how the Republicans and President Bush in particular are screwing up the world, remember Rwanda. History will remember Clinton for three things: Impeachment, failure to take al-Qaeda seriously, and Rwanda.
President Bush sees the future in Liberia, and so he’s acting. The longer I look at the President, the more I like him. It is clear that he is a man of conviction, and sees the potential for a major catastrophe in Liberia. It’s not that hard, just look at the nearby nation of Sierra Leone – another failure of the Clinton Administration and France’s ami the United Nations.
Bush realizes the danger in Liberia, so he’s sending in the troops. Liberian President Charles Taylor has already stepped down. Rest assured that the first Marine to arrive in FreeTown will have his hands on Taylor’s belt, hustling him onto a chopper bound for Lagos.
It will be interesting to see how the anti-American Left spins this one.
Speaking of anti-American, it appears that the BBC is in deep trouble. Their charter is up for renewal in 2006, and the British are sharpening their knives. As a devout listener of the World Service, the opening “This… is London,” used to send shivers down my spine. Now it stirs me in the same was as does Deutschland uber alles. The Beeb has lost it completely. For proof of their bias, check out BBCWatch. For convenience I have cut a PDF file of the main indictment which can be downloaded here.
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