BBC: U.S. Damned if it does and damned if it doesn't By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 21, 2003	Home   Search   Forum   Terms

It seems that the U.S. is hated no matter what it does. We overthrough the evil dictatorship of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and everyone hates us. Now--according to the BBC--we're hated because we're not intervening in Liberia. So which way is it? Sounds to me like we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

This was the subtitle of an article published on the BBC tonight:

At least 90 people have been killed in a day of shelling on the besieged Liberian capital, fuelling anger towards the US for failing to send peacekeepers to stop the civil war.

So according to some Liberians and the BBC, it's our fault that Liberians have been killing each other since 1989. Is the U.S. responsible for Liberian President Charles Taylor's corrupt and despotic rule? Is it America's fault that Taylor armed and trained rebels in Sierra Leone in exchange for diamonds (and the resulting 50,000 killed in that country)? Is the U.S. to blame for the Liberian rebels and Taylor's thugs killing 200,000 of their own people? Is it our fault that Nigeria refuses to intervene.

Here are some more treats and tidbits from today's BBC article, regarding Liberian rebels' savage shelling of their own people:

Mutilated and bloodied bodies of around 20 victims were laid out in front of the US Embassy by angry survivors, the BBC's Paul Welsh reports from the city.

They were angry, he says, that America had not led a peacekeeping force to Liberia while there was still a ceasefire to keep.

People who spoke to our correspondent said they had lost faith in a country they used to speak of fondly because it was only interested in looking after its own.

Damned if we do and damned if we don't? No. Not at all. Some at the BBC and the world community will hate and resent the U.S. not matter what it does. We need to stay the course in the war on terror. We need to defeat the despots when their actions or inactions will affect Americans' safety. Let's help when we can. Let's do what we have to do.