> Ok, so does anyone understand the pressure for U.S. intervention in
> Liberia?
I think it might be the same thing that made Petrochina in the Sudan such a surprising issue for the right: the missionary lobby.
The successful British intervention in Sierra Leone, which is their Liberia, makes us look bad by comparison. Especially when they are rubbing it in by heaping corpses on our embassy doorstep. That seems to be a factor firing up the international press and the UN to keep issuing calls for us to intervene.
Lastly, I may be delusional, but Condoleeza Rice seems to be making this a personal issue. She even attributed strategic value to the place and said it wasn't just about humanitarianism, which is absurd. But that only makes it more remarkable that she said it. Perhaps this feels to her like the place to assert her black bona fides?
Michael