The case for a peacekeeping force to enter Liberia is so compelling that even Socialist Worker can see it:
NO SANE person could be unmoved by the terrible suffering of people in the West African state of Liberia. Fourteen years of brutal civil war has seen at least 200,000 people killed out of a population of three million. Many others have been injured or lost their homes.
Now, with continuing intense fighting, malnutrition and disease threaten the lives of many more. The only solution offered by most newspapers and politicians is the intervention of outside military forces, especially the US. On the other side are right wing politicians who believe in general that it is legitimate for the US and Britain to police the world militarily. But, in this case, they think Liberia and black Africans aren’t worth bothering about.
Such murderous racism is disgusting. The Liberian people deserve aid, support and solidarity.
Couldn’t agree more. Sadly of course the SWP would not be the SWP if they didn’t manage to then get it wrong: “outside military intervention is not going to help.”
Why? Well no good reason is given but reference is made to Somalia being proof that US troops won’t help in Liberia.
Obviously for the SWP there can be no difference between the situation in Somalia and that in Liberia. All those African nations are the same and you can’t trust the Yanks anywhere so it is best to leave the Liberians to their bloody fate. Such murderous racism is disgusting.
Curiously they do actually admit that most Liberians would welcome intervention:“If the US troops go in they will be welcomed by many Liberians. When life is so utterly desperate almost anything offers hope”.
Indeed. Some of us on the left have been pointing that out for some time and not just about Liberia.
But the SWP are happy to openly place themselves against the wishes of the Liberian people. Once more the SWP knows what is best for those niave foreigners.
They know, what the Liberians fail to see, that US peacekeepers will be worse than another 15 years of civil war. Just like they knew that the Iraqis wanted to continue living under Ba’athist terror and the Afghans were having a whale of a time under the yolk of the Taliban.
I blame the legacy of the British Empire for such racist arrogance.
Rather than support the Liberian people’s desire for peace but have to give their consent to the possible use of US forces, the SWP are prepared to see thousands more die in civil war in Liberia. And they call themselves the ‘anti-war party’?