It cannot be easy being a superpower. You are damned if you do; you are damned if you don’t. Certainly, that is what the Bush administration must feel over international pressure to deploy troops in Liberia. As it decides what to do, the irony will not have escaped it that many of the voices calling for US troops to go to Liberia are the same ones that opposed US troops going to Iraq. Nor is a UN resolution apparently necessary; no one seems to think it important any more.
It is easy to say that the dire need for peace in Liberia overrides all other considerations. But that immediately raises the question as to who decides what is necessary — international public opinion as expressed through the international media? That the Liberian people want the Americans in there is little doubt. But what about American wishes? Should they not count? And where does international law fit into this?
There are double standard at work. Either there is international law which has to be followed in all cases or it is of no consequence in any of them. International public opinion cannot pick and choose. It cannot say that it matters in one case because it does not like what might happen, but it does not matter in cases where it is more than happy with the outcome. That is hypocrisy.
There is another reason to be concerned about the pressure on Washington to send in troops.
It indicates that, for all the criticism levied against them on Iraq, the world still wants the Americans to play the role of global policeman.
But if we expect the US to play that role, we cannot in all honesty complain, let alone be altogether surprised, when it does so on its own terms or makes up its own mind as to what are the priorities for peace in the wider world.
The only way to avoid such double standard and ensure that international wishes rather than those of the police (whoever that might be) are put into effect is by having a standing international peacekeeping force — directly answerable to the UN and ready to spring into action when the UN secretary-general orders it.
For the moment, unfortunately, that is not on anyone’s agenda — not the UN’s, not Washington’s, not that of other Security Council members.
Meanwhile, Liberia still needs to be pacified. If American troops are to go, they should only do so as part of a larger multinational force, and sanctioned by the UN — which is what will probably happen because it is what President Bush happens to want as well. But in any event, what needs to stop — and now — is the megaphone diplomacy from all over the world calling on him to play Liberia’s savior.
