Haiti – An American Colony Again?

Balance the complete collapse of government and infrastructure, a reign of chaos and lawlessness, the inability to reach survivors or rescue victims without massive manpower, and the efficiency of using disciplined military troops to make up for these deficiencies against a morbid fear of another American occupation. Why would we ever occupy Haiti? We’ve done it before, from 1915 to 1934, resulting in a serious depletion of Haitian banks in favor of moving that money to U.S. financial institutions, and as recently as 1994, US forces entered Haiti under orders from President Bill Clinton to restore a president following a coup (we failed).

We are drawing international criticism and fear from local Haitian leaders – the locals already fear that their political destiny is determined in Washington, D.C. anyway – that this represents another potential American take-over of this impoverished and dysfunctional island nation. Tell that to the people who are receiving help from the troops.

Despite France’s horrible history of brutally occupying Haiti in times past, France's international cooperation minister, Alain Joyandet, recently accused Washington of trying to ‘occupy’ Haiti; he implored the the United Nations to investigate. The January 21^st Sphere.com: “Joyandet complained after a French aid flight carrying a field hospital was turned back from Port-au-Prince's overtaxed airport last week. The angry minister reportedly got into a physical confrontation with the U.S. official in charge of air traffic control. The French plane landed safely the next day… French President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened quickly, praising Washington's ‘exceptional mobilization’ and ‘essential role ... on the ground’ in Haiti. But the whole row was embarrassing, especially with so many Haitians still suffering.”

There are 12,000 American troops in Haiti (with lots of ships off-shore), and from their command posts all over the capital city (and beyond), they are in charge of just about everything from police activities, routing relief supplies to air traffic control. They have taken over the National Palace in Port-au-Prince as their central earthquake aid depot, and as the stench of death and disease make the vast concentrations of impoverished humanity increasingly vulnerable to greater jeopardy, US forces have elected to big to move 400,000 human beings out of a very dangerous Port-au-Prince area to safer temporary shelters.

The toll of death and destruction are staggering, even as the Haitian government is ending the search for survivors. On January 23^rd, the government estimated that 150,000 bodies have been buried to date, 250,000 are known to be homeless, 200,000 have left the capital city, most of which remains in unusable ruin and aftershocks continue to inflict additional damage. Exactly what would those remaining do without the power of a massive organized relief effort, supported with the organization of an experienced military force? And exactly what would the U.S. government do with a land that has been depleted beyond words, whose limited infrastructure has been impaled by the quake, where buildings and structures literally need to be razed and rebuilt and where an uneducated and horribly impoverished people can only take with virtually nothing to give?

While “the usual suspects” – like Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez – speak of America’s “hidden occupation” and there are indeed bureaucratic mix-ups that may inconvenience foreigners in Haiti, the hard reality remains that only a significant military force can achieve that kind of organization necessary to bring the fastest relief to these poor people. We didn’t and still don’t have time for UN votes and then to gather and send in the blue helmets in a few weeks. If the UN wants to make a huge commitment and join US forces (and there are UN forces there as well right now), so be it, but right now, Haitians need massive help… and fast. America may have had a checkered past with Haiti, but it is time for us to make good on helping them make it through… and I believe that we most certainly have no serious intentions of colonizing Haiti or even “occupying” it in any meaningful sense of the word. We can be a very generous people, if given the chance. This time, we’re doing it right.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I too have trouble looking at those photographs of Haiti.