Paul Denton writes:

Think about who Liberians have begged to save them from ruthless dictatorship - not the UN, not France, not Germany, but the US.

There is less to that than you seem to think. Liberia is a former United States colony, founded by the American Colonization Society in 1821 for the purpose of settling freed slaves back in Africa. The capital of the new country was called Monrovia in honor of President James Monroe, who held office at that time. The African-American immigrants have dominated the country ever since.

In the case of African countries that were formerly colonies of European countries, those countries have often taken a very active interest in their former colonies' affairs. The French are right now doing peacekeeping missions in Ivory Coast, a former colony, and the British recently intervened in Sierra Leone. Liberia has no friends in Europe to turn to. I hope we do something for them this time rather than let them fall apart, like George Bush Senior did when the civil war began in 1989.