Without US assistance, the UN Mission in Liberia is failing. According to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the troops in Liberia are not sufficient to affect a disarmament of LURD and MOBILE rebels. An earlier attempt in December came to a halt after ten days because the 5,000 UNMIL troops were not sufficient to disarm rebels without the full cooperation and assistance of local militia leaders. A new attempt is under consideration, but the success of disarmament (DDR in humanitarian lingo) is doubtful.

This information is disturbing because of the parallels to Somalia. CW claims that Somalia failed because the US military should not be used for humanitarian/peace keeping missions. The logic of this is dubious. Scott Peterson, a journalist who was in Somalia (see Me against my brother for his account) and friend of Blackhawk Down author Mark Bowden, the months that passed without disarmament endangered the humanitarian mission. During the first few months, Somalis expressed popular good will and cooperation with the US troops in high expectations of the mission. However, the orders of the Bush sr. administration limited the scope of action of the troops. They were there to unload boxes and little more. During that time the warlords learned for themselves that they could resist US pressence because the US would not do a thing to stop them. Weapons were hidden away, buried everywhere. When Clinton attempted to change the mission, the initial goodwill won by US had been poisoned. Subsequent raids by special ops forces acted as a multiplier to the growing antipathy to the US presence.

The withdrawal of active participation of US troops in Liberia probably has a similar effect. Goodwill has been wasted. Liberia likely feel that they cannot turn to the international community and that they must choose sides in a civil conflict.