The Modern Version of Civil War: Anarchy

"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?"

President Donald Trump, January 11, 2018, referring to immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and parts of Africa

Marauding warlords are nothing new. They’ve defined many ancient civilizations, including the fall of Rome, the struggles between factions in Japan and China, tribal warfare in Africa and South America, etc., etc. In the late 20th and 21st centuries, warlords have battled in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, various nations in Africa even evolving into the cartel strongholds in Central and South America. Innocents are always slaughtered, women raped, young men (even boys) are conscripted by occupying forces… and sometimes new nations are formed, usually unstable and economically weak.

Haiti and the United States have been intertwined in so many ways. In 1804, Haiti’s slaves defeated Napoleon’s forces and evolved into a slave-free nation. But the United States backed France’s claim for debilitating reparations (which continued to be paid until the 1940s) for the lost slaves. Haiti has thus lumbered under foreign debt, internal instability and crushing poverty, a condition that has never ended for this Hispaniola Island nation (an island shared with the Dominican Republic). Haiti, however, never stood a chance.

There had been so much turmoil and foreign intervention that “the US Navy sent ships to Haiti 19 times between 1857 and 1913 to ‘protect American lives and property’ until the United States finally occupied Haiti in 1915… Prior to the occupation, the US military had taken control of the banks and collected $500,000 to hold in New York. The Haitian constitution was written in a manner that prevented foreign entities from owning land or operating in Haiti. However, as a result of the occupation, the US had influenced the Haitian government to rewrite the constitution to repeal an 1804 provision that forbade foreigners from owning land in Haiti. The occupation impacted the nation's economy as well as the people's self-image and independence. Ultimately, Haitians united in resistance of the US occupation, and US forces left in 1934.” Wikipedia. We left Haiti more impoverished than ever, having required that island nation effectively to pay for the costs of our occupation.

What followed was the horrific rule of Papa Doc and Baby Doc voodoo-practitioner dictators with carnage and brutality of the worst kind. For decades, the US supported these brutes by reason of their strongly anti-communist commitment. Until it was just too much. “The Reagan administration forced Baby Doc to leave in 1986, and when a repressive military dictatorship arose, Reagan suspended aid. The George H.W. Bush administration also embargoed and then blockaded Haiti, suspending all but humanitarian aid.” Wikipedia. The United States effectively created a completely US-dependent welfare state, with weak elected presidents, including an assassination, and little hope for economic recovery.

On January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake decimated Haiti. Buildings crumbled. Infrastructure was destroyed. Large segments of the population were unhoused, starving at the bottom of subsistence level life. The United States poured in relief aid, sent troops, but the nation simply unraveled into mega-chaos. The damage had begun a long time ago, with lots of help from the United States. As if that 2010 horror were not enough, in the fall of 2016, Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti (one of several major storms), causing $2.8 billion in damage and killing 546 people. Haiti has never recovered. It has become a de facto war zone, very little has been repaired, and its “leadership” embattled, ineffective and often “missing.” Today, Haiti is ruled by the latest generation of warlords: vicious ultra-violent gangs.

It is so bad these days that gangs are filling their ranks by breaking thousands (in early March, 4,000 to be more accurate) out of prisons. The elected Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, is missing (probably hiding in Puerto Rico)… and the shotcallers are demanding that he resign. They have laid siege to Haiti's main airport, Toussaint Louverture International, in the capital city Port-au-Prince, to prevent his return. On March 5th, a former police officer turned gang leader Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier announced that the country will head to civil war and genocide if Henry doesn't step down and the international community (including the US) continues to support him.

Will Henry return? “‘It’s the million-dollar question,’ said Jake Johnston, a research associate at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. ‘Nobody knows where he is or when he’ll return. The fact that he hasn’t even opened his mouth since the violence began has stoked all sorts of speculation.’” AP, March 6th. Haiti is ungovernable, its buildings and infrastructure are still in shambles, food shortages are the rule, and hope has left the building. The above pictures say it all.

The United States has been one of the primary reasons for Haiti’s sad condition. We extracted millions from their bank accounts, supported the worst dictators in the Western Hemisphere (and that’s saying something), effectively creating a country that was on the cusp of becoming a totally failed state. A huge earthquake and nasty hurricanes sealed the deal. As the poorest nation in our hemisphere, there is nothing short of miracle that can save Haiti. Desperation and nothing left to lose gave rise to gangs stepping in to moderate the chaos… only to amplify the chaos instead. That “shithole” country, Donald, got that way in significant part by the actions and inactions of the United States.

Haiti has spun deeper into chaos. “U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Caribbean leaders in Jamaica on Monday [3/11] in an urgent push to solve Haiti’s spiraling crisis , while pressure grows on Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign or agree to a transitional council… The closed-door meeting did not include Henry, who has been locked out of his own country after surging violence at home.” Associated Press, March 12th. But exactly how do you fix a nation that major powers, internal corruption and Mother Nature have spent centuries destroying?

Haiti represents the new face of civil war: factions battling themselves in the streets, using violence at the pathway to leadership. It may be an extreme example, but it is an example of what happens to a nation where government can no longer govern, where natural disasters (you mean like climate change “natural” disasters?!) inflict damage that was never sufficiently prepared for, and where people are so polarized and hopeless that the start killing each other as their perceived solution to all the chaos. Armed American MAGAns are threatening to use their vast store of guns to impose their solution on the rest of us. It can’t happen here? Maybe not as desperately as the unraveling in Haiti, but “making America great again” promises to be anything but.

I’m Peter Dekom, and there is big price to pay for massive tax cuts to the rich, failure to address obviously advancing natural disasters, creating laws to encourage and facilitate gun ownership and rejecting democracy as a good and legitimate form of government.