I can go either way. But it looks like we are going in lets not do it half assed. Get some stability in there and get some american companies in there that can use unskilled cheap labor. Get the Susan & Tim robins to donate money to pay for it. Hell we need a new place for naval gunnery maybe we can lease some land from them. But this is just another place that we are picking up after the french.

What is going on in Haiti? Jesse Jackson says Aristide’s democracy must be protected. (All voters pick up your gasoline filled tire before entering the polling place) Maxine Waters says Aristide left because he had a gun held to his head. (Someone should have pulled the trigger) If the rebels are his old army, who the hell is his new army? Seriously, and sadly, I have to agree with Sgt. In remarkably similar circumstances, we took over the country in 1916, for almost 20 years. We controlled their revenues, initiated a public works program including Haiti’s first roads, created a representative government with a Constitution written by FDR, eradicated terrorism, created a strong domestic police force, and when the US withdrew in 1936(?) left an elected representative government in place. All with a great deal of controversy, both in Haiti and the US. The sad thing is: it’s the educated minority that become the despotic rulers. If those educated Haitians living in the US now were to return to develop the country, history indicates the same abuses would occur. Perhaps 40 years (two generations) of education would be a start, but US politics would not allow more than 2 years effort before partisan election politics interfered. Maybe the US should seize Haiti, declare it a Commonwealth, and compel Halliburton to develop a “Cancun” type Caribbean resort area. The population would have universal employment, and universal compulsory education would solve the long-term problem of the elite moneyed-class producing despots. Do nothing, do a little, do a lot, do everything? It doesn’t matter. The US will be blamed for whatever happens.

Generally French colonial mandates have fared worse in the postcolonial period than just about any former colonial power's holdings save the Belgians. But that's somewhat off topic. I generally support nation-building efforts because I believe that the experience is good for the long-term success of the American vision. However, I emphatically agree with TXAggie that doing it half-assed is the worst possible option. As the sagely Mr. Miyagi so eloquently said in the Karate Kid: "Either you karate do 'yes,' or you karate do 'no;' you karate do 'guess so' ... [squish] ... just like grape." I think I might want to revisit some history books on the American occupation of Haiti in the early 20th century. I think our esteemed NR columnist may be forcing the facts to fit his foregone conclusions. Even if that isn't the case, I might also add that the USA of 2004 is different than the USA of 1915. I'm actually more a fan of direct administration, rather than installation of puppet rulers, especially if there are no quality people available to run a local government. The Washington bureaucracy may be inefficient, but it's still far more efficient and professional than just any third world government you care to name. Haiti is a small, uneducated pseudo-republic with a population of barely 7 million, no army, and a police force as inept and corrupt as Saddam's. We aren't going to have much success with any kind of quick-fix solution. Hopefully, however, in this instance, we can convince some other UN members to fork over money for some of the costs of policing and peacekeeping. The Haiti deployment received a much more universal mandate from the Security Council. It will be interesting to see who follows up their votes (which cost nothing) with actual resources. In either event, however, America can win: if others send money and troops, we can use it as a testament to our willingness to work multilaterally and commit to globally sanctioned peace and stability efforts. If no one else sends anything, then we get to beat the UN over the head with the fact that we're the only ones acting on the body's words, and we also will gain a de facto much greater say in how administrative affairs are handled on the ground in Haiti (and I generally trust the US much more than the UN when it comes to fostering freedom). --Phoenix Rising

Tx, LOL. Yeah, after the Puerto Rico succeeded in having the range there closed down(and then bemoaning the loss of jobs with the downsizing of the naval base there) we could use another one. Too funny.

I agree with the article. I generally loathe foreign entanglements that lack clear benefits. Haiti does not pose a threat to the United States, nor is there money to be made over there.

Artical by Ed Strong: (the only radical left.......radical left...geddit?) Haiti: Aristide Forced to Leave by US Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said he was forced to leave Haiti against his will by the United States, a claim dismissed by senior Bush administration officials as nonsense. Aristide accused the United States of forcing him out of office in a "coup d'etat", disputing Washington claims that he chose to leave to avoid bloodshed. "No-one should force an elected president to move in order to avoid bloodshed while they are still killing people," Aristide told CNN in a telephone interview from the Central African Republic, where he is in temporary exile. The Bush administration denied the charges. Reuters - "The allegations that somehow we kidnapped former President Aristide are absolutely baseless, absurd," said US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flatly denied Aristide had been forced to leave. White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the charge "complete nonsense". But Aristide insisted, "I am telling you the truth ... they lied to me." Aristide's charges were conveyed by phone to CNN as well as to sympathetic US lawmakers who have accused the Bush administration of encouraging a rebel advance in Haiti that led to the ouster of a democratically elected government. Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, and Randall Robinson, the former head of the black lobbying group TransAfrica, told the Democracy Now! US public radio program that Aristide called them from the Central African Republic. "He was taken by force from his residence in the middle of the night, forced on to a plane, and taken away without being told where he was going. He was kidnapped. There's no question about it," Robinson said. "The president asked me to tell the world that it is a coup, that they have been kidnapped. That they have been abducted." "He did not resign. He said he was forced out," Waters told Democracy Now!. "He said it over and over again, that he was kidnapped, that the coup was completed by the Americans, that they forced him out." But New York Democrat Charles Rangel, a member of the congressional black caucus, said after talking by telephone with Aristide that interpreting his allegations of "kidnapping" was "subjective". "They strongly suggested that he get out of town. The military helped him make the decision," Rangel told reporters as a congressional black caucus delegation met in New York with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss Haiti. "President Aristide feels that it was a coup, that he felt he was kidnapped, that he was told by the United States authority that they could no longer protect his life," he said. While there had been reports Aristide left Haiti in handcuffs, Aristide denied this, Rangel said. "He said he was not in handcuffs. He felt like he was in handcuffs." Powell said US authorities did not force Aristide onto the leased plane, that he went willingly and was not kidnapped. He expressed irritation at members of Congress claiming otherwise. "It would have been better for members of Congress who have heard these stories to have asked us about the stories before going public with them so that we don't make a difficult situation that much more difficult," he said. Powell said Aristide's security detail called on Saturday night with questions about how to protect him and his personal property and whether he could choose where he was going. Aristide's preferred destination would not take him, so US officials went through lengthy, difficult negotiations with various countries that led to an agreement by Central African Republic to accept him. "Some 15 members of his personal security detachment were with him from his house to the airport, onto the plane with him, on to the refuelling locations and on to the Central African Republic and that's what's happened notwithstanding any cellphone reports to the contrary," Powell said.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/mar2004/hait-m01.shtml And some more musings from very important people. :)

saying us soldier don't have to go there because there's no profit sounds a little wrong. first point, if nothing is done there, there will be a lot of refugee who will try to join florida, and with the presidential election in the scope, that can't be good. other point, haiti is a transit point for cocaine from colombia to USA and europe, so every action taken may benefit usa on this fight. puting aristide back in place with 20 000 soldiers in 94 was a mistake, why making a mistake and don't do anything after? (but the us don't do that alone on this point, as the effort to stabilize the country are made by us and france until the UN troops come.

Since Aristide has blamed the US for everything that's gone wrong in Haiti since we helped him get back, I'm not surprised that he's continuing the trend. Yeah, he was kidnapped...they probably had to handcuff him to keep him from grabbing the treasury keys as he ran to the plane. Let's hope the people of Haiti haven't traded one dictatorship for another.

Is an elected official who refuses to step down when his term of office expires still an elected official? It seems to me that the only defense sympathetic leftists have for Aristide is that he is "The elected" president of Haiti. I believe his term expired in 2000, and he refused Haitians the scheduled election.