Dean’s Two-Step

Howard Dean says that the US should intervene in Liberia despite Dean’s vociferous opposition to the liberation of Iraq’s Hussein regime.

"We could stabilize the situation and remain in Liberia for no more than several months, at which time a U.N. peacekeeping mission could be deployed to oversee a period of transition," he said.

Oh really? So we’re going to go into a country in the midst of a 14-year civil war in which 14-year old boys are killing each other and in a few months everything will be fine? Exactly how do you intend we do that, Gov. Dean? Considering you can’t even remember the number of troops in Iraq, how many troops would it take to keep the peace in Liberia? How many would get caught in the crossfire, and how are they going to tell combatants from civilians? Or would you prefer they just stand around and get shot?

Dean argued his position on the use of force is not out of line with his opposition to the war in Iraq.

Bullshit.

"The situation in Liberia is significantly different from the situation in Iraq," he said.

Yes, the people in Liberia are black. Those Iraqis just aren’t quite politically correct enough to deserve to live free of tyranny. If only there skin had been more brownish and less olive Governor Dean might deem them worthy of saving.

Dean argued there’s no inconsistency in opposing the war in Iraq while backing intervention in Africa. He said Bush never made the case that Iraq posed a threat to the world.

“The situation in Liberia is exactly the opposite,” Dean said. "There is an imminent threat of serious human catastrophe and the world community is asking the United States to exercise its leadership."

You mean there wasn’t a serious threat of human catastrophe in Iraq, Gov. Dean? Or are the Iraqis not good enough pawns in your political game against the President?

It is clear that Dean’s spin can’t mask the fact that his principles are only based on political expediency rather than any real common sense. Liberia is a situation in which there are no US interests at stake, and the country is in the middle of a complex humanitarian emergency that can’t be solved unless we are willing to send thousands of troops into a country where what little law there is does not extend outside the inner city of Monrovia. US soldiers would be forced to defend themselves against a crowd of young boys barely into their teens armed with deadly weapons. Does Dean really think that there’s anything that the United States can realistically do to end the slaughter other than act as targets.

The only way for the situation in Liberia to end is for the entire nation to do a radical about-face and realize they have more common interest as a nation than as a group of warring tribes. Unfortunately, that seems unlikely to happen. The best the United States could hope to do is perhaps make a lull in the fighting, and even that would come at the cost of American lives.

So why does Gov. Dean want us to go? Because the UN and the EU says we should. So we can reasonably expect that our military policy will be made from New York and Brussels rather than Washington D.C. under a Dean administration. It’s yet another reason why Dean is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief. Thankfully, the chances of that actually happening are remote.