On the eve of President Bush's recent tour of Africa, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, appealed to him to commit troops to the peace-enforcing mission which is due to be dispatched to beleaguered Liberia.
And the US President agreed, albeit with some reluctance, no doubt mindful of what headlines might say during his trip had he been churlish enough to say no. US forces, he promised, would provide logistical, but not combat, support to the promised West African mission to be led by Nigerians. That is, when Liberia's indicted war-criminal president, Mr Charles Taylor, had gone into exile.
Weeks on, and the one million people of Monrovia, besieged and under fire, running out of food and water, are still waiting. Aid agencies say 400 have died in the fighting in the last week alone. Meanwhile, three US ships are steaming for the Liberian coast but have no instructions to deploy the 2,500 marines aboard, while in Ghana talks about the stop-go deployment, now supposedly "this week", of the West African force of 3,250 peacekeepers, have resumed.
On the ground in Liberia the bloody deadlock would be farcical if it were not so tragic: Mr Taylor won't leave until the peacekeepers come in, and the peacekeepers won't come in until he has gone.
And then over the weekend the US Ambassador, Mr John Blaney, appealed to the fighters of the opposition Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) to call a ceasefire and withdraw to six miles from the capital to allow in relief supplies. Their response has a dreary familiarity: Mr Sekou Conneh, the rebels' civilian chairman, said they were willing to comply, but only when peacekeepers were in place.
This diplomatic danse macabre is a disgrace. Little else may be expected of the murderous thugs who make up both Mr Taylor's army and its opponents, but this sudden coyness on the part of the most powerful nation in the world is surprising. Is this truly the great power that has embarked on a unilateral mission to banish tyranny and terrorism from the world?
Once again, it appears, the tragic impotence of global security mechanisms, particularly the United Nations, are shamefully exposed - victims of the lack of political will when the vital interests of the US are not at stake. In his appeal to LURD Mr Blaney said the movement "needs to show that they have regard for the people of Liberia, that it is not indifferent to the great human suffering that is taking place here". Washington could also take his words to heart.