The Scoop: Liberia? Why would we send troops there?
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to Liberia we go. With U.S. troops, we’re out to save the world, hi ho, hi ho.
I sing this little song with no disrespect to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And I mean no disrespect to President Bush, who is currently deciding whether to send thousands of U.S. soldiers to a country most of us couldn’t locate on a map.
The U.S. has viewed itself as the world’s baby-sitter, or the world’s peacekeeper (whichever sounds better), for far too long. And that would be just peachy if all of us had money growing in the backyard.
But the mood among most Americans is that taxes are a bad thing. And most of us are excited that Bush is determined to cut taxes so we can have more money in our pockets.
I only wonder how much money we could have if the U.S. wasn’t supplying weapons to Israel, or sending billions in federal aid to Turkey, or maintaining a large army in Iraq. And who knows how many years, or decades, the U.S. will keep troops in Iraq?
My point is the United States has finite resources. We only have so many soldiers. Just how far are we prepared to extend ourselves?
This is a point that has pitted high-ranking U.S. officials against one another. Bush is being advised by the State Department to send troops into Liberia. He’s also being told by Pentagon officials not to.
I have to agree with the Pentagon. The U.S. is about to spread itself too thin with around 200,000 troops in the Persian Gulf and another 10,000 still in Afghanistan. We don’t need to start sending troops to Africa.
Speaking of Afghanistan, this would be an opportune time to mention we have yet to find bin Laden. And speaking of the Persian Gulf, we have also yet to get Saddam Hussein. Our men and women in Iraq are facing growing hostilities. They are still being attacked. They are still being wounded. They are still dying for their country.
Sure, we live in a remote-control society where we’re all eager to change the channel and find something new. Most of are tired of hearing about Iraq. Hussein was yesterday’s news. Bin Laden is ancient history. We crave something new.
If the U.S. is just itching to deploy more troops, we should use those soldiers to finish what we started in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. We should finish what we started and then send our soldiers back home.
Fortunately, President Bush is preceding with caution. He appears to be listening to his advisers and he also knows there’s no oil in Liberia. Considering those two facts, maybe we can avoid sticking our nose in that conflict.
What we really need to emphasize — and I can’t say this enough — is America. Tennessee is up to its neck in financial problems and there are 49 other states right along with us. We need to focus on the homefront.
The city of McMinnville says it needs more money next year and is projecting a tax increase. The county needs more money as well, but a majority of commissioners favor budget cuts over tax increases. The great thing about budget cuts is those cuts save taxpayer dollars, but they usually eliminate jobs.
Our education system is financially strapped. For the third straight year, Tennessee universities under the Board of Regents are raising tuition. In Warren County, the school system is considering advertising on buses to generate extra cash.
It’s for these reasons, and dozens more that won’t fit in this space, the United States should not make the mistake of sending troops to Liberia. We can only solve the world’s problems for so long while continuing to neglect our own.
(James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)