Washington, DC — In an angry outburst, startling because it came from mild-mannered Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ), the New Jersey Democrat said that U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, resists meaningful involvement in Liberia because it's an African nation.
"If it's a black person dying in Africa, Rumsfeld doesn't think it's worth having our men on the ground," Payne said during his questioning of Defense Department witness Theresa Whelan, the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of African Affairs.
U.S. assessment missions are underway in Liberia now, Ms. Whelan told the House subcommittee on Africa. She also put the number of U.S. personnel supporting the Liberian effort at 5,000 "at its peak." But acknowledged that U.S. forces in Liberia now number less than 100. " Liberia's support mission" builds upon DOD's (Department of Defense) security cooperation programs that develop allied and friendly military capabilities," Whelan said.
In response, during his questioning, Payne said it all added up to a missed opportunity to bring real peace and stability. The rebel groups are little more than thugs themselves, Payne suggested. Britain deployed its troops in Sierra Leone and France, its troops in Cote D'Ivoire. But "the greatest defense force in the world couldn't send people [to Liberia]." Rumsfeld finally sent in 200 troops, said Payne, "but they stayed for a week."
A Security Council resolution last month approved 15,000 UN troops for Liberia. In his formal opening remarks Payne had commented that U.S. troops should have stayed long enough to monitor the transition from Ecowas troops to UN troops. Instead, complained Payne, "the three U.S. warships that took weeks to arrive off Monrovia's shores like the Love Boat [from the television series about a romantic cruise ship] slowly making its way from the Red Sea, finally sailed away yesterday."
If U.S. troops had entered Liberia in June they wouldn't have been fired on, argued Payne. "I'll stake my career on that. They didn't shoot at the Nigerians and they don't even like them."
"I rarely get annoyed," Payne said to Whelan, "and I know you're just the messenger. I would tell Rumsfeld the same thing. Please give him my remarks."
