It is therefore worth wondering whether those who are now calling for some cooling-off period have not been paid to sing that line. We must remember that though the focus is on Liberian crooks, West African thieves are mostly in high places in their respective home governments. That brings me to what exactly sanctions are. English has a terrible word for these synchronized actions that the United Nations Security Council is threatening against the government of Liberian President Charles Taylor. But though ''sanctions'' is an inadequate word, it is a good idea when other forms of persuasion have failed.
Sanctions are a collection of penalties for forcing compliance with moral authorities.
But sanctions have never yielded immediate results. They were never meant to. Sanctions also have a history of failing. But this happens only when there is no full agreement within the international community about the need to apply them against a certain country. By all those indications, the government of President Charles Taylor of Liberia is an ideal system against which sanctions are likely to achieve their desired effects.