What exactly is happening in Liberia?

Decades of US Intervention expressed in Manufactured Humanitarian Crisis

A newswire request for more information on the situation in Liberia resulted in a series of 3 illuminating posts from an Indymedia.ie contributor who had spent some time in the area:

This most recent upsurge in suffering in Liberia is an example of the US sorting the place out rather than an example of why they should sort the place out.

The US _is_ involved in Liberia and they are by far the most powerful actor there - their policy decisions are the most important factors in shaping what happens in Liberia. The humanitarian crisis (and the TV cameras) are a tool for the US to replace the government with somebody more obedient without getting into an armed battle with Taylor which they want to avoid at the moment for obvious reasons. It now seems (again based on scanty evidence) that Taylor is proving to be a tough cookie to crack. The LURD probably don't have enough heavy arms to take the Monrovia bridges and, knowing this, Taylor is haggling over leaving - he presumably wants immunity from prosecution, a safe haven, and a US guarantee not to freeze his bank accounts. The yanks will have to choose between this potentially embarrassing deal and going in with a few bits of big hardware to finish him off.

Read Chekov's three posts: post 1 post 2 post 3