Nation founded by freed slaves looks to United States for rescu

DAKAR, Senegal -- The United States is being called to the rescue of Liberia -- yanked by old bonds many Americans never knew the United States had.

The two nations have economic and strategic ties dating back to 1822, when President James Monroe dispatched soldiers to escort ashore the first freed American slaves, who founded the nation with a U.S.-style Declaration of Independence.

Now, West African leaders are asking for a 2,000-troop U.S. contribution to a peace force for Liberia to stand between Liberia's rebels and warlord-president Charles Taylor -- and a decision before President Bush opens his first Africa visit Monday.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and international figures from Europe to Africa have spoken of the United States as the natural candidate to lead a peacekeeping force.

Why the U.S. military? Effectiveness, for one reason, supporters of the idea say. Obligation for another.

They point to neighboring Sierra Leone, where a 10-year rebel terror campaign to win control of that country's diamond fields killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

Sierra Leone's doped-up, uneducated rebels repeatedly made mockeries of peace deals -- until former colonial ruler Britain intervened, with Guinea and the United Nations, crushed the rebels, and brought peace in 2002.

Liberia, unlike Sierra Leone, was never a colony -- but it came close. Returned American slaves patterned their new republic faithfully on the American model, pledging themselves in a U.S.-style Declaration of Independence to "regenerate and enlighten this benighted continent."

The United States "is a father to Liberia," said the Rev. Willie T. Wolo said, one of many ordinary Liberians discussing the prospect of U.S. rescue this week on street corners and in homes.

"The only people who can bring decency to Liberia are the Americans," one refugee, James A.B. Brown, said in the capital this week.

Liberians, faithful imitators of the United States, with their Masonic temples and evangelical Protestant churches, puzzle over why America remains aloof from their current troubles -- despite the dangers of any American deployment here.

"Once America steps in, the process will be smooth and simple; the nightmare will end," Monrovia resident Stephen Scott declared. He spoke as aid workers cleaned the streets of corpses left by last week's four-day rebel siege of the city, which killed hundreds.

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EDITOR'S NOTE -- Associated Press Jonathan Paye-Layleh contributed to this report from Monrovia, Liberia.