BALANCING NEWS AND WHEATIES.(MAIN)

Byline: REX SMITH

Last Monday, a decade of bloody conflict in Liberia reached American soil. Mortar shells tore into a United States embassy residential compound in Monrovia, where some 10,000 Liberians had taken refuge. Dozens of people died.

Enraged Liberians, many wailing in grief and pain, dragged the mangled bodies to the front of the embassy and lined them up. The scene of carnage was a message to Washington, Liberians said, that the U.S. should have stepped in long ago to stop the violence in the West African nation founded by freed American slaves.

If this doesn't sound familiar, perhaps it is because the Times Union and local newscasts gave …