Powell: U.S. Liberia mission would be 'very limited'
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PRETORIA, South Africa (CNN) -- Any U.S. peacekeeping mission in Liberia would be "very limited in duration and scope," leaving long-term efforts of restoring order in the hands of troops from the country's West African neighbors, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.
A U.S. military team is in Liberia assessing the humanitarian situation in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, and an American delegation will meet with representatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Ghana over the weekend to discuss what role U.S. troops could play in a Liberian peacekeeping force, Powell said.
"We fully expect and have made it clear to our friends in the international community, ECOWAS and the United Nations, that we see it as being very limited in duration and scope and really for the purpose of getting ECOWAS in there in sufficient strength to do the long-term rebuilding efforts," Powell said.
President Bush "hasn't made any specific decisions on the level of support or actual participation," Powell told reporters in South Africa, where he is traveling with Bush. Powell said the president should have a clearer picture in the next several days about what is needed from the United States.
A U.N. Security Council delegation recommended Wednesday that deployment for an international stabilization force "be drawn up rapidly" because delay will risk further breakdowns of the cease-fire.
The president spent Wednesday in Botswana where he highlighted that country's progress as a democracy and its struggles with AIDS.
Bush is scheduled to leave Friday for Uganda and Nigeria, the last two stops on his five-nation African trip. Nigeria has offered asylum to Liberian President Charles Taylor, whom Bush has said must leave the country before Liberia's civil strife can end.
Taylor has agreed to step down and repeated that pledge Thursday, but offered no timetable.
"I think I could have been instrumental in doing a lot here," he said. "But I understand for things to take shape here may call for some action on my part, and I accept that because I believe [Bush] wants something good to happen to Liberia."
However, he warned that Bush is facing a "dilemma" in Liberia.
"Having troops all around with the terrible situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, and there again facing an election year soon with the specter of an American boy coming to Liberia and getting hurt is all on his mind, which is right as president. He ought to think about that."
In an interview for CNN's "Larry King Live," Powell said the U.S. role at first was likely to be in transporting and supporting West African troops.
"Other nations have offered troops, but they will need some assistance in getting to Monrovia and in supporting themselves once in Monrovia, and the United States will have a role to play," he said.
"We will wait to see what our assessment team finds out during their deliberations over the weekend and then, I expect the president to make a decision in the not too distant future about the support we'll be providing and what level of participation is required," he added.
Possible Djibouti angle
Earlier this week U.S. military sources said that if Bush does decide to send U.S. troops to Liberia, the most likely scenario would be for 2,000 Marines stationed in the Horn of Africa to go to the West African nation.
The most readily available U.S. troops are a Marine expeditionary unit based on the amphibious ship USS Iwo Jima, which is accompanied by the USS Nashville and USS Carter Hall.
These Marines are near the East African nation of Djibouti, where they plan to conduct exercises as they return from duty in the Persian Gulf. It could take up to two weeks to move them across to Liberia on the western coast of Africa. (Full story)
Meanwhile, the United States is considering basing Navy and Air Force fighter aircraft in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, according to a statement released by the Pentagon.
A U.S. military site survey team that includes Air Force and Navy pilots and specialists for the Air Force F-16 and the F-15E planes, and the Navy F/A-18, has arrived in Djibouti to evaluate facilities and other resources available there.
The Combined Joint Task Force for the Horn of Africa, formed in late 2002, is charged with conducting any operations that might be needed to counter terrorist activities in the region, including in Yemen.
The task force has been conducting training and exercises with regional military units as well as ongoing training for the U.S. Marines in the task force.
A decision to base aircraft in the Horn of Africa would also underscore the Defense Department's recent effort to establish more flexible basing arrangements in potential hot spots so U.S. forces could respond rapidly in a crisis, according to Pentagon officials.
