Mighty Be Our Powers Begins

The book Mighty Be Our Powers is a memoir about a woman named Leymah Gbowee.  Right now, in the beginning of the book it is just describing what growing up was like for Leymah and her family. When she was younger, growing up in Monrovia, Liberia, you would grow up with not just your immediate family but your extended family (grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) as well. It takes you from them being young and seeing how fortunate Leymah and her sisters were growing up, to them having to flee their home from Liberian rebels who invade their village. The only questions I have right now about the book is, these are well-educated women, the signs that war was coming were obvious, why didn't they do anything to prevent it instead of letting it happen and then trying to fix it? I mean, I know that sometimes the news can be misleading but it showed the rebels rampaging through villages and the destruction they leave behind.

The majority of questions that I have are with not only Liberia's government but our own as well. The United States was all fine and dandy with just standing by and watching Charles Taylor and his band of rebels pillage and destroy everything they came in contact with. They chose not to step in and intervene because the Cold War was ending and Liberia was no longer an asset. How could anybody think that's right? Like, seriously? We intervene all the time with matters that don't involve us, and try to "Help" people who don't want our help but when a country seriously needs our help we're nowhere to be found? How does that make any sense?

And the Liberian government? Now I don't necessarily have a problem with the whole government just mainly President Doe. You see a group of angry citizens running up through Liberia, obviously angry with YOU, killing, raping, and demolishing everything they pass just to get to you and you just let them? Why didn't he send in some soldiers to stop them? Why didn't he try to extend that olive branch to them? Innocent people were getting hurt and killed because of him and he was doing nothing about it.