IV 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 255
Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States military should 
not become involved in the Liberian civil war, either alone or as part 
of a United Nations peacekeeping force. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 24, 2003
Mr. PAUL (for himself, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. GOODE, and Mr. TANCREDO) sub-
mitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on International Relations 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States 
military should not become involved in the Liberian civil 
war, either alone or as part of a United Nations peace-
keeping force.
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring),
SECTION 1. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING UNITED 
STATES INVOLVEMENT IN THE LIBERIAN 
CIVIL WAR. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—
•HCON 255 IH 
(1) Liberia was founded in 1821 by the Amer-
ican Colonization Society to repatriate former slaves 
from the United States back to Africa; 
(2) from the founding of Liberia, that country 
has been steeped in conflict, ruled by dictators, and 
plagued by wars, and the United States and other 
countries have intervened in Liberia numerous times 
in the course of the troubled history of that country; 
(3) the current Liberian civil war has lasted 14 
years, has claimed hundreds of thousands of victims, 
has left more than a million inhabitants of the coun-
try homeless, and has been characterized by un-
speakable atrocities, including mutilations and mass 
rapes, and by the forced participation of children in 
the fighting and killing; 
(4) the tragedy of the current Liberian civil war 
is immense and it is clear that something should be 
done to relieve the suffering in that country, how-
ever, the civil war is an internal and a regional con-
flict of Liberia and the neighboring countries, which 
affects almost exclusively the West African area 
alone; 
(5) Liberia has sent fighters into Ivory Coast, 
Sierra Leone, and Guinea, and fighting has spread 
to Burkino Faso;
•HCON 255 IH 
(6) although the International Crisis Group 
called Liberia ‘‘the eye of the regional storm’’, the 
civil war in that country is not a conflict that affects 
the United States, in general, or the national secu-
rity interests of the United States, in particular; 
(7) the internationalization of the Liberian civil 
war could have serious negative unintended con-
sequences, with, given the history of neo-colonialism 
in Africa, Liberian citizens and those of the affected 
region likely growing suspicious of and possibly hos-
tile to the presence of European and North Amer-
ican troops; 
(8) United States involvement in the Liberian 
civil war and in the related regional conflict is slowly 
escalating, as demonstrated in early July, 2003 by 
the arrival in Liberia of a 32-member group of 
United States military advisors to assess the secu-
rity situation on the ground and the possibility of 
sending United States troops into that region; 
(9) as recently demonstrated in places such as 
Somalia, steadily escalating United States involve-
ment in foreign conflicts of no national interest to 
the United States is ill-advised, expensive, and dan-
gerous to those troops and advisors involved; and
•HCON 255 IH 
(10) of the 33 brigades that make up the en-
tirety of the active duty combat forces of the United 
States Army, all but just three brigades, according 
to recent press reporting, are either currently en-
gaged in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, are com-
mitted to other missions, or are reconstituting, sug-
gesting that the United States military is in serious 
danger of becoming over-extended. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that—
(1) the United States military should not be-
come involved in the Liberian civil war, either alone 
or as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force; 
and 
(2) a regional effort, especially including the 
countries neighboring Liberia, would be the most ef-
fective way to end the tragic conflict in Liberia and 
such effort should be encouraged.
Æ