Bush Weighs Troop Commitment to Liberia

Re “Chaos, Killing Rock Capital of Liberia,” July 22: Liberia has been an independent country since 1847. The fact that Liberia is unable to maintain a stable government is a problem for Liberians to solve, not the United States. If an opportunity to intervene in the Liberian situation has been missed, it has been missed by those closer to the problem than the U.S.

Kofi Annan and the United Nations should have intervened long before now. The Organization of African States could have gotten involved. Former African colonial powers such as Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and others should have gotten involved a lot sooner than now to prevent or abate the current “crisis.”

The U.S. is not the country of first, or last, resort in every crisis in the world. If Liberia or any other nation is incapable of maintaining a stable government, the solutions to its problems should be found among its own people, neighboring nations or the U.N.

Harold E. Boucher

West Hills

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Your July 22 editorial, “Quicksand in Liberia,” is morally repugnant and racist. The inference is that African lives are of less value than those of their European or Arab brethren. We do have a strategic and moral commitment to Liberia, if for no other reason than flawed U.S. national interests founded the African state. Are we now to abdicate our moral and historical ties to Liberia because we “have enough problems without Liberia”? I think not.

We stood idly by while millions were slaughtered in Rwanda; now are we going to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to another potential disaster in Liberia? You should be ashamed of yourselves for even suggesting that the United States reject its historical responsibility to Liberia while embarked on a mission of fossil fuel booty in Iraq.

Mark S. Dymally

Compton

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At least 90 Liberians were killed on Monday alone while President Bush thought about sending some peacekeepers. It would have been a much shorter alleged thought process if only the Liberians had oil. Since they don’t, they’re dead. Dark-skinned people in America know that if they don’t drill for oil or clear-cut forests, Bush and Republican lawmakers don’t care about their lives. If the Liberians knew that, they wouldn’t have wasted their time and lives waiting for the Marines.

Ken Burke

Anaheim Hills