Peacekeeping

TOKYO - Despite growing public unease and a last-minute scramble by opponents to put up roadblocks, Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party rammed a bill through Parliament early yesterday that allows the government to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq. Approval of the bill was a big victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and advocates a more global role for Japanese peacekeeping troops. U.S. officials - straining to meet demands for troops in the Middle East, the Korean Peninsula and Africa - have pressured Japan to increase its military contribution to the Iraq campaign.

THE PHOTOS of corpses in the streets of Liberia's capital and news reports with those words so familiar in the New World Order - "warlord," "civil war," "warring tribes" - prompt a gut response in both the U.S. public and U.S. government, "Let's get in the helicopters and just get the heck out." The easiest, obvious policy is to let Liberia die. Those words, which I wrote to the U.S. State Department eight years ago, could have been written today. All that's changed since then is the name of the president and the names of the dead.

UNTIL NOW, the broad concept of U.S. military transformation was most easily thought of as developing and integrating hardware that could detect, communicate information about and strike conventional battlefield targets more easily, accurately and rapidly. But the occupation of Iraq shows that transformation needs to become something else. Transformation -- and all the institutional focus, thinking and resources that has gone with it -- now needs to be redefined as preparation for complex, unconventional, political conflicts such as are often found in occupation and peacekeeping missions.

MONROVIA, Liberia - President Charles Taylor, in an interview, accused the United States yesterday of supporting his rebel enemies and pressed Washington to prove its commitment to Liberia by sending peacekeepers. He also added a surprising coda to his promise to step down, calling his exile a brief "cooling-off period" before a return to Liberian politics. Asked about his legacy, Taylor, who faces a 17-count indictment for alleged crimes against humanity in connection with a war in neighboring Sierra Leone, said he wants, above all, to be remembered as "the man that brought peace to Liberia."

DAYTON, Ohio - President Bush took another step yesterday toward deploying troops to Liberia, ordering a military assessment team to West Africa, though he has yet to make a final decision on whether U.S. forces will take part in an expected United Nations peacekeeping force. White House officials were encouraged by reports from Liberia's capital, Monrovia, that President Charles Taylor had agreed to step down, but said they were waiting for more details. "If the reports are accurate, this is an encouraging sign," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said en route to Independence Day celebrations here.

WASHINGTON - Facing international pressure to intervene militarily in Liberia, the Bush administration said yesterday that it was "actively discussing" a U.S. role there and did not rule out sending U.S. troops to the war-torn West African nation. Administration officials have been sending ever-stronger signals in recent days that Washington is edging away from its reluctance to lend U.S. troops for international peacekeeping missions. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, "We're actively discussing how best to support the international efforts to help Liberia return to peace and to the rule of law."

WASHINGTON- The Bush administration, under growing pressure from African and European countries, is debating whether to lead an armed peacekeeping mission to Liberia or find some other path to help end a bloody civil war there, officials said yesterday. A week before President Bush's first trip to the continent since entering the White House, the administration is described by diplomats and analysts as sharply divided on whether to lead an international stabilization force in the impoverished West African nation, founded 150 years ago by freed American slaves.

MONROVIA, Liberia - Embattled President Charles Taylor of Liberia appealed to the United States for help in rescuing his country from civil war yesterday but said he would not abandon power until an international military force arrived to guarantee peace. In a radio address aired late yesterday afternoon, Taylor said he wanted the United States to lift "Liberia and Liberians out of this mess." He said he remained open to negotiations to end the bloody conflict. His plea came a day after President Bush called on Taylor to resign in the interest of halting a three-year conflict with rebels that has fractured this West African country, prompted a regional refugee crisis and left hundreds dead.

WASHINGTON - With the U.S.-backed "road map" to Middle East peace blocked by continuing violence and terror, the idea of placing an international armed force between Israelis and Palestinians is gaining increased attention. The idea has been broached in recent days by such disparate voices as Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. "A NATO peacekeeping force is likely to be acceptable to both parties, given the traditional European associations with the Palestinian people and the traditional United States associations with the people of Israel," said Warner, a Virginia Republican, in a floor speech last week.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - A suspected suicide car bomber hit a military bus carrying German troops yesterday in Kabul, killing at least four soldiers and wounding 29 in the most deadly attack on the international security force since its work began 18 months ago, military officials said. The German defense minister, Peter Struck, said at a news briefing in Berlin that four soldiers had died and 29 had been injured, seven of them seriously, Reuters reported. "A lot of the indications are pointing toward a suicide attack," Struck said.