[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 255 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 255

 Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States military 
 should not become involved in the Liberian civil war, either alone or 
            as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 24, 2003

    Mr. Paul (for himself, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Goode, and Mr. Tancredo) 
 submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to 
                the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States military 
 should not become involved in the Liberian civil war, either alone or 
            as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force.

    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 

SECTION 1. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING UNITED STATES INVOLVEMENT IN 
              THE LIBERIAN CIVIL WAR.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) Liberia was founded in 1821 by the American 
        Colonization Society to repatriate former slaves from the 
        United States back to Africa;
            (2) from the founding of Liberia, that country has been 
        steeped in conflict, ruled by dictators, and plagued by wars, 
        and the United States and other countries have intervened in 
        Liberia numerous times in the course of the troubled history of 
        that country;
            (3) the current Liberian civil war has lasted 14 years, has 
        claimed hundreds of thousands of victims, has left more than a 
        million inhabitants of the country homeless, and has been 
        characterized by unspeakable atrocities, including mutilations 
        and mass rapes, and by the forced participation of children in 
        the fighting and killing;
            (4) the tragedy of the current Liberian civil war is 
        immense and it is clear that something should be done to 
        relieve the suffering in that country, however, the civil war 
        is an internal and a regional conflict of Liberia and the 
        neighboring countries, which affects almost exclusively the 
        West African area alone;
            (5) Liberia has sent fighters into Ivory Coast, Sierra 
        Leone, and Guinea, and fighting has spread to Burkino Faso;
            (6) although the International Crisis Group called Liberia 
        ``the eye of the regional storm'', the civil war in that 
        country is not a conflict that affects the United States, in 
        general, or the national security interests of the United 
        States, in particular;
            (7) the internationalization of the Liberian civil war 
        could have serious negative unintended consequences, with, 
        given the history of neo-colonialism in Africa, Liberian 
        citizens and those of the affected region likely growing 
        suspicious of and possibly hostile to the presence of European 
        and North American troops;
            (8) United States involvement in the Liberian civil war and 
        in the related regional conflict is slowly escalating, as 
        demonstrated in early July, 2003 by the arrival in Liberia of a 
        32-member group of United States military advisors to assess 
        the security situation on the ground and the possibility of 
        sending United States troops into that region;
            (9) as recently demonstrated in places such as Somalia, 
        steadily escalating United States involvement in foreign 
        conflicts of no national interest to the United States is ill-
        advised, expensive, and dangerous to those troops and advisors 
        involved; and
            (10) of the 33 brigades that make up the entirety of the 
        active duty combat forces of the United States Army, all but 
        just three brigades, according to recent press reporting, are 
        either currently engaged in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, are 
        committed to other missions, or are reconstituting, suggesting 
        that the United States military is in serious danger of 
        becoming over-extended.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the United States military should not become involved 
        in the Liberian civil war, either alone or as part of a United 
        Nations peacekeeping force; and
            (2) a regional effort, especially including the countries 
        neighboring Liberia, would be the most effective way to end the 
        tragic conflict in Liberia and such effort should be 
        encouraged.
                                 <all>