U.S. Marines Reportedly Flying to Haiti

[Roon]

http://abcnews.go.com?CMP=EM1391

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. is Haiti thing a spook op to create a launching pad for Cuban invasion?

[ret5hd]

3. i don't know about cuba, but...

it is, at least, a spook op to keep sweatshop owners in power

more cheap labor republicanism at work.

[Mistress Quickly]

4. No, I'm pretty sure

Aristede sucks and the people finally got fed up with it and said Screw this, I'm going to take back my country.

(ending phrase intentional)

[I AM SPARTACUS]

24. if by "the people" you mean the 13-odd families that own ev'rything...

...in Haiti, everything except the tenuous power of the presidency, well, then you're probably correct.

[Cooley Hurd]

15. We already have the best launching pad for an invasion of Cuba...

...Jebbie's Florida.

[Mistress Quickly]

2. from the story

The are going in to get the US Embassy staff and families secured. Nothing wrong with that.

AP News Alert
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ Fifty combat-ready U.S. Marines flying to Haiti to secure American embassy and staff, diplomats say.

The Associated Press

[Loonman]

5. I find it funny

How people only seem to give a crap about Haiti is when it's a game piece on the Repub/Dem world domination gameboard.

Haiti sucks.

It is only slightly better, there, since Duvalier was ousted.

[Mistress Quickly]

6. Exactly.

The Haitians have decided to take action into their own hands and get rid of the corrupt murderous dictator.

[MaineDem]

7. If I remember correctly. Aristide has already been ousted once AND...

Was put back in by US intervention.

[pw]

8. The people ousting him are none too great either

One of the major groups is the heirs of Papa Doc's personal army, according to reports. (Of course, those folks are favorable to US interests.)

It's just a little disgusting that while Twit & Co have all their attention focused on Iraq, they apparently have nothing at all to say or do about a civil war right in our backyard, where the US has been meddling with all the players for more than half a century.

[Loonman]

10. So there's a choice

Gang of old evil dictator's thugs

Gang of new evil dictator's thugs



Aristade rigged the 2000 election, so that puts him in the dictator camp.

[mobuto]

11. The only solution I can think of

is for Aristide to agree to step down, in return the rebels agree to put down their weapons, and a foreign peacekeeping force comes in and allows free and fair elections. That just might require the United States. But neither Aristide nor the rebels seem promising. They're all murderous thugs.

[mobuto]

9. But at that time,

Aristide had been elected in free and fair elections, something that's been noticeably missing in the last ten years. Aristide's incredibly weak - he's had to rely entirely on the support of violent youth street gangs, not the most reliable or incorruptible of entities and has done nothing for Haiti. It would be a good idea for the US to intervene to preserve order and transition to democracy, but to protect Aristide? That would be stupid.

[Mistress Quickly]

12. Was that Clinton? or Bush I?

on edit: my stupidity is showing with that question, but I can't figure it out.

[MaineDem]

13. Clinton

1994 I believe.

[Ediacara]

19. He was elected

and ousted in a coup. He was put back in power in 1994 I think with the help of US troops. He's aparently the ONLY elected official in all of Haiti.

[GermanDJ]

14. Found some background info about the current situation in Haiti

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=4997


Judging from this article (and it's by far the most comprehensive about Haiti I've read so far, I have to admit) Aristide seems to be a rather weak politician who has made a great deal of mistakes.
But it appears (from this article, I have to say it again) that he's not the ruthless tyrant like mobuto describes Aristide in his comment. :shrug:

[mobuto]

16. Um

Aristide isn't a "ruthless tyrant," and he is very weak. But he is also a dictator with a Messianic complex and he's killed his political opponents and his weakness has meant he has had to rely on violent street gangs for support. The guy is not good.

Z-mag is also not always the most reliable of sources.

[GermanDJ]

17. Seems that most of the Western media are again quite sloppy:

Judging from this article, which I forgot in my previous posting:

http://zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=4977

"US Congresswoman Maxine Waters issued a press release Feb. 11th, on the heels of her recent visit to Haiti, that called on the Bush administration to join her in condemning the “so-called opposition” and, specifically, Andre Apaid Jr., who is a “Duvalier supporter” that, along with his Group of 184, is “attempting to instigate a bloodbath in Haiti and then blame the government for the resulting disaster in the belief that the U.S. will aid the so-called protestors against President Aristide.”

(...)

“Under his leadership, the Haitian government has made major investments in agriculture, public transportation and infrastructure…The government doubled the minimum wage from 36 to 70 gourdes per day, despite strong opposition from the business community…President Aristide has also made health care and education national priorities. More schools were built in Haiti between 1994 and 2000 than between 1804 and 1994. The government expanded school lunch and school bus programs and provides a 70% subsidy for schoolbooks and uniforms”

Rep. Waters made clear assertions on Aristide’s behalf that are otherwise absent from Bush administration commentary and corporate media deceptions regarding Haiti."

[sweetheart]

18. Given the totally destructive american interventions in haiti

we should stay the hell away.

We've occupied that country for a good many years just to enforce
slavery.... the history is too ugly, and were the haitians able to focus on their enemy, its the US.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1153735,00.html

[mobuto]

20. Slavery?

While I agree that US intervention has not always been positive, we never intervened to support slavery.

[sweetheart]

21. The history i've read agrees

as indeeed the formal state "slavery" was not done, but rather something close to it....

France invaded to enforce slavery... long ago, to keep the colonies from getting uppity.

America has only defended economic feudalism and repressed any democratic movements... ok, thats different.

Given the choice, i'd rather have been a slave in the south, than shot dead by gun toting gangsters in haiti today....

When the human right to life is in question, there is no justice, no freedom. That is questionably better than slavery, just under different names.

[Snazzy]

22. They've landed

U.S. Marines in Haiti to Protect Embassy
31 minutes ago


By MICHAEL NORTON, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Militant government loyalists set up flaming barricades Monday to block the road into the Haitian capital, and 50 U.S. Marines were flown in to protect the American Embassy and diplomats. Rebels threatened to attack the city soon.

Frightened Cabinet ministers were asking friends for places to hide, senior government sources said, as the rebels, bolstered by having seized Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Hatien, hit two police stations outside the capital.

With rifles drawn, 20 Marines in combat gear and helmets ran off the U.S. Air Force transport plane at Toussaint Louverture International Airport for transport to the city.

In Cap-Haitien, the northern port, rebels hunted down militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and residents went on a rampage of reprisals and looting that began after rebels seized the city of 500,000 people with little resistance on Sunday.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=1&u=/ap/20040223/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti_uprising

[mobuto]

23. Lynchings? Simply charming.

From the linked article:

"I am a brick mason, I didn't do anything wrong," Jean-Bernard Prevalis, 33, pleaded as he was dragged away, head bleeding.

"We're going to clean the city of all 'chimeres,'" said rebel Dieusauver Magustin, 26. Chimere, which means ghost, is used to describe hardcore Aristide militants.

It was not clear what would happen to those detained. One rebel said they were saving them from lynching. But another, Claudy Philippe, said "The people show us the (chimere) houses. If they are there, we execute them."