Obama Gets It Mostly Right on Haiti, So Far
I admire Barack Obama for a lot of what he’s been saying and doing in response to the disaster in Haiti.
He’s reacted swiftly, he’s struck the right moral tone, and he’s pledged $100 million in aid.
But he hasn’t done everything right.
For one thing, he’s appointed George W. Bush to head up the U.S. relief effort there with Bill Clinton, the same George Bush who backed the coup that expelled Aristide, the democratically elected president, from Haiti.
And I’ve got a couple worries going forward.
What if the U.S. troops that Obama sent down to Haiti start doing not just relief operations but security operations? Are we going to see U.S. troops firing on looters in Haiti? I sure hope not.
And how heavy a hand is the United States going to use in rebuilding Haiti to fit the free market model so beloved in Washington?
As Naomi Klein has warned us on Democracy Now, the Heritage Foundation has already called for using this crisis to “reshape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy.”
The Heritage Foundation doesn’t care about the people of Haiti. It cares about ramping up U.S. corporate profits there.
We can’t let Haiti be another proving ground for Naomi Klein’s theory of “disaster capitalism.”
That won’t help the people of Haiti, who need help so badly today.
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine. To subscribe for just $14.97 a year, just click here.
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Comments
As to #2 -- if we were bombing Haiti, that would have taken a couple of hours, max.
If we'd had one of those Computer Video Gaming Dweebs, sitting at desks in Foggy Bottom, piloting Armed Drones into Haiti, we would be talking minutes.
Food?
Best call Fed X -- the America of that "Berlin Airlift" era, is no longer with us.
As to #3 --- Many have conducted Coups against Haiti,
many Countries, separately and in tandem at times.
Haiti's Revolution, against the European Powers, long back, has drawn them out for "special treatment" over the past two centuries, and since the US, through our "Robber Baron's" association with those powers, began working for that side of the Atlantic, going back at least a hundred years, we have been up to our necks in it also.
Now, strict "Monroe Doctrine" concerns, may have been the true reason, for our involvement initially, but if you were to go to the writings of, Twice Medal of Honor Awarded, General Smedley Butler, he would tell you, that this was not the case.
Wasn't Bill Clinton recently appointed special envoy to Haiti?
One wonders sometimes, if Rumors and Actual Existing Patents of Super Weapons, utilizing Tesla technology, capable of inducing Earthquakes, might have some validity.
http://twm.co.nz/emecterr.htm
http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/cohen-ecoweapons.htm
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/01-10-05/discussion.cgi.121.html
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/esp_ciencia_tsunami24.htm
But that would be "Crazy Talk", of which we obviously have no evidence.
So chalk it up to coincidence.
As they say in Bill's power circles, "Never waste a Good Crisis".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUCbVUo-w6k
And Bill is acknowledged, as being like a son to the Bush's.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a0XUFQWwm1BQ&refer=c...
And then we come to, "Barrack H.W. Bama".
These connections, sometimes beg to remind one, of some Hollywood Movie, based on an "Organized Crime Family", we all love so much.