MONROVIA, Liberia – Excerpts from Liberian President Charles Taylor (search)'s roughly 20-minute farewell address, taped Sunday for broadcast to the country on the eve of his promised resignation:
"I am stepping down from this office of my own volition. No one can take credit for asking me to step down. I did not want to leave this country. I can say I have been forced by the world's superpower."
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Taylor said he was fulfilling an old promise that: "If I were the problem, which I know you know I'm not, I would step aside ... I would become the sacrificial lamb, I would become the whipping boy that you should live."
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Accusing the United States of arming Liberia (search)'s rebels: "They can call off their dogs now, and we can have peace."
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"I must stop fighting now. I do not stop out of fear, I do not stop out of fright. I stop out of love for you my people."
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"I say to you if I have injured or hurt anyone, I ask you to forgive me. Because for those of you who have injured me, I say to you today, this Sunday afternoon, I forgive you."
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"What is most important is that you live, and that ... there is peace. These are very, very tough times, but I hope that as the international community is here, that our friend the United States who have been the architect of this 'anybody-but-Taylor-policy' ... that they will bring all of the good for you. I wish you all of the good."
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"My challenge to George Bush (search) is, please you are a man of God, do something for our people."
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"If [the Americans] say they will do nothing as long as I am here, this further threatens your survival as a people. I can no longer see you suffer, you have suffered enough. I love you from the bottom of my heart. I will always remember you wherever I am. And I say, God willing, I will be back. God bless you, and save the state."
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