Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean says President Bush should send troops to Liberia to help end the strife in the African nation. Dean says his call for U.S. action in Liberia does not conflict with his long-standing opposition to U.S. intervention in Iraq. Dean, a former Governor of Vermont, says he’s always believed the U.S. has “a right and an obligation to intervene in a humanitarian crisis.” Dean says the U.S. should help stop the genocide in Liberia. Dean says “all the countries that didn’t want us to Iraq are begging the U.S. to do something about Liberia.” He says large numbers of Liberians are being murdered by their government, and the U.S. can and should do something about that. Dean is in the midst of an Iowa campaign swing, and he’s urging supporters to sign up for what his campaign calls the “Dean Corps.” Dean wants his supporters to do public service projects. The “Dean Corps” will do things like clean up rivers and pick up trash, beautification projects Dean says communities are unable to perform with staff cutbacks. He says such public outreach is another way of giving his campaign some extra visibility. Dean says that’s how he started out in politics — by working on a project to build a bike path around Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont. Dean says he, as a local doctor, joined with a lawyer and a college professor to lead the effort to preserve access to the lakefront, and they wound up building a nine-mile-long trail around the lake. Dean talked to a group of about 200 supporters last night in Iowa City after campaigning earlier in the day in Dubuque and Manchester. Dean campaigns in Washington and Davenport today.
