Bill Nelson: “I was looking forward to going right now to a classified briefing on Liberia as part of our Senate Armed Services…”

“I was looking forward to going right now to a classified briefing on Liberia as part of our Senate Armed Services Committee. It is my understanding that briefing has been canceled because they feel too many of the Senators have already gone back to their States. I am going to still see if we can get that information for those of us on the Armed Services Committee who are still here. But as we look at Liberia, we cannot keep delaying decisionmaking. I think putting the marines on the boats offshore is clearly a step in the right direction, but this should have been done a couple of weeks ago. Although it wasn't, the marines are in transit, and that is a step in the right direction. What do we need to do? I think it is clearly in the interest of the United States that we diplomatically--in addition to the military action--make sure the cease-fire we are trying to get in place stays, and to reach out to all sides, including the rebel side. I think they have an interest in having the cease-fire. We need to make sure that cease-fire sticks. Then we need to work out an arrangement whereby the African troops come into place. At that point, once there is a military presence stabilizing the country, I think we should have a simultaneous evacuation of Taylor with our U.S. Marines coming in with a presence for a short period of time, with mainly the peacekeeping burden being put on the ECOWAS or African troops.”