Frozen In Montreal (via Canadians Are Smug): This Asshole just had to be involved…:

It was Jackson who legitimized both Liberian strongman Charles Taylor and his protégé, the machete-wielding militia leader in neighboring Sierra Leone, Cpl. Foday Sankoh. The two hacked to death several hundred thousand citizens of their respective countries.

Oh, please. If there’s going to be finger-pointing, it should be directed at those who had a much larger influence, namely Pat Robertson. This voice of the Christian right-wing was not only more heavily involved in legitimising Charles Taylor, but still defends him to this very day. In addition to currently owning a gold mine and an oil refinery in Liberia, Pat Robertson also heavily supported a massive three-day long “Crusade” which featured Charles Taylor front-and-centre. And this wasn’t back in 1997 where it could be argued that Jackson may not have known about Charles Taylor’s true or eventual nature, this was last year. Furthermore, Pat Robertson defended Liberian President Charles Taylor only yesterday:

“So we’re undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country,” he said in the broadcast.

Robertson also wrote a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell questioning his country’s desire to interfere in Liberia:

May I respectfully inquire as a taxpayer of the United States and one with significant financial investment in Liberia why the State Department of the United States of America is determined to bring down the President of Liberia who was elected in 1997 as president in elections which the ICG reports that the United Nations, President Jimmy Carter, and all other neutral observers determined were substantially free and fair?

On a related note, you should also check out the This Modern World strip from January 6th, 2003 which deals with this very issue in addition to opening up another huge can of worms.