Iraq policy critics now want U.S. in Liberia

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The Bush administration remained noncommittal yesterday on whether it would send U.S. troops to quell the civil war in Liberia, where President Charles Taylor was defying a U.S. demand to step down.

President Bush "is determined to help the people of Liberia find a path to peace," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said after the National Security Council discussed the Liberian crisis.

Reflecting what one senior State Department official called intensive internal discussions, Mr. Fleischer told reporters that "the exact steps that could be taken are still under review." He said a U.S. military role is still under consideration.

Some of the harshest critics of the U.S.-led war in Iraq are all but begging a reluctant Bush administration to lead a peacekeeping mission in Liberia. Within the U.S. government, the Pentagon has been hot on Iraq but cool on Liberia, while the State Department has taken the opposite tack.

With a bloody civil war flaring up again in a country founded by freed American slaves more than 180 years ago, "this has been a doubled-edged debate about American power for everyone involved," said Robert Jervis, a professor of international politics at Columbia University.

"All those people who were ambivalent about American power now think it's great so long as it is being used for their purposes," he said.

Many of those most opposed to the U.S.-led effort in Iraq now argue that American participation is vital to the success of a proposed 5,000-strong multinational peacekeeping mission to enforce a cease-fire. Among them are U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, leading European powers -- including France -- and the editorial page of the New York Times.

"There are lot of expectations that the United States may be prepared to lead this force," Mr. Annan said during a visit to Switzerland yesterday. "Several countries, members of the U.N., have appealed for that. The Liberian populations are also asking for that."

The pressure from the international community comes as Mr. Bush prepares for a critical trip to Africa and puts to test one of the key issues of his 2000 presidential campaign.