US Secretary of State Colin Powell sought US intervention to calm the volatile and violent situation in Liberia as the White House mulled such a move.
Powell told the Washington Times in an interview published on
Wednesday that history obliges the United States to help the troubled country founded by freed US slaves.
”We do have a historic link to Liberia, and we do have some obligation as the most important and powerful nation on the face of the earth not to look away when a problem like this comes to us,” he said.
”We looked away once in Rwanda, with tragic consequences,” he said, referring to a 1994 genocide there.
”Only the United States, France, Great Britain and maybe one or two other countries have that kind of capability within their armed forces,” he said of the military might needed to stabilise Liberia.
Powell noted that French and British forces are already engaged in other African countries and that although the United States has a large presence in Iraq, it has ”still unused capabilities”.
In recent weeks, Powell has made his position on US intervention in Liberia increasingly clear. Such a move has hit resistance in the White House, the Pentagon and the Congress, where some US leaders believe the US military is already stretched to its limits. – Sapa-AFP