Journal Star, Peoria, Ill., July 6
President Bush is right to be hesitant about sending American troops to Liberia. …

Other nations in the region have pledged to send 3,000 troops, if they are accompanied by 2,000 American soldiers. They argue that the United States has a unique interest in Liberia, since it was founded 150 years ago by former American slaves. Until Taylor took power in 1997, the United States had close relations with the nation. American soldiers would add credibility and professionalism to the peacekeepers.

While all true, we still have our doubts. The United States can’t be the world’s policeman. We already have 150,000 troops in Iraq, 10,000 in Afghanistan and several thousand in Bosnia. Our military is stretched thin. …

It is difficult to stand by and watch innocent people die in an unending civil war. The humanitarian reasons for intervention are powerful, but the U.S. can only do so much.
Commitments fade away
Chicago Tribune, July 5
The connection between congressional spending authorizations and appropriations has always been fluid, roughly the difference between lofty promises and a certified check. But rarely has there been such a gap between promise and reality as there is in the U.S. role in fighting AIDS in the developing world.

In January, President George W. Bush asked Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, “to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean.”

Those daring foreign-policy commitments now are melting away under the heat of congressional budget wheeling and dealing and a lack of White House follow-up. …
RIAA misses opportunity
The Buffalo (N.Y.) News, July 7

A decision by the Recording Industry Association of America to go after music fans who trade songs on the Internet is, by one important yardstick, understandable. It is not right to take anyone’s work and distribute it for free without permission.

But we would have more sympathy for the companies had they shown a bit more enlightenment in their response to Internet technology and file sharing in the first place.

… Had the industry initially focused its attention on establishing legal downloading sites and charged reasonable rates, it might have avoided much of the problem. It’s no secret that people want to get something for nothing, but the recording industry should have at least tried to market its product to the audience it’s now fighting. …

It’s hard to blame any industry for taking measures to keep its product from being pirated. But in this case, there may have been a better way to do it.

It’s too bad the recording industry didn’t try marketing before it turned to litigation.

Deaths test support
The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News, July 9

When President George W. Bush triumphantly declared on May 1 that “the United States and our allies have prevailed” in the war to topple Saddam Hussein and that major “combat operations in Iraq have ended” aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, approximately 120 American soldiers had died in that forlorn country.

With the killings of two more Americans in Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. death toll in Iraq since Bush’s announcement has risen to 30, with no end in sight to what is looking more and more like a guerrilla war. …

Bush’s constituency, the American people, seems to still support him and his war aims, but it will be interesting to see, as an election year approaches, how that popularity holds up when more Americans have died during the peace than during the war.

Stop the fighting
The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa, July 8
Charles Taylor, the leader of Liberia, should be arrested and brought before an international court to answer charges of war crimes committed against his people and his neighbors.

Since he seized power about a decade ago, Taylor’s rule has been a shining example of how not to run a country. … In fact, Liberia (has) never experienced peace under his regime.

(Even though) there is a case of genocide to be answered by Charles Taylor, the international community has opted to extend indemnity to Taylor in exchange for him stepping down as president. He will also be allowed to go into exile in Nigeria.

There may be an argument that this compromise encourages other aspirant dictators to continue to butcher their people knowing that they will never be brought to justice.

But the problem is that adopting such a hard-line stance against dictators such as Taylor is not always the best method to stop the fighting.