Haiti after the quake - Imperialism with a human face

[subsuelo]

A month into the disaster, the U.S. and UN were managing to feed only 1 million people, leaving more than a million people without relief aid.2 Instead of mobilizing to provide water, food, and housing for the victims, the U.S. focused on occupying the country with 20,000 U.S. troops and surrounding it with a flotilla of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships.

This military effort actually impeded the delivery of urgent aid. In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Haiti: Obama’s Katrina,” three doctors who volunteered to provide emergency services wrote, “Four years ago the initial medical response to Hurricane Katrina was ill equipped, understaffed, poorly coordinated and delayed. Criticism of the paltry federal efforts was immediate and fierce. Unfortunately, the response to the latest international disaster in Haiti has been no better, compounding the catastrophe.” After they describe the horrific conditions in Haiti’s hospitals, the doctors continue, “The U.S. response to the earthquake should be considered an embarrassment. Our operation received virtually no support from any branch of the U.S. government, including the State Department…. Later, as we were leaving Haiti, we were appalled to see warehouse-size quantities of unused medicines, food and other supplies at the airport, surrounded by hundreds of U.S. and international soldiers standing around aimlessly.”3

The U.S. government and media have covered up these realities with puff pieces about the supposed success of U.S. relief efforts. They have also wrongly portrayed this catastrophe as simply a natural disaster, ignoring the historical and social causes of Haiti’s poverty—principally the imperialist stranglehold over the nation—that exacerbated the impact of the earthquake.

If the military flotilla is not there to deliver aid, why is it there? The Obama administration has used the cover of humanitarian aid to occupy the country in pursuit of several goals. First and foremost, after disastrous wars that have discredited U.S. interventionism, Obama hopes through the operation in Haiti to win back domestic support for military intervention. What better means to do that than to present a military invasion and occupation as a humanitarian relief effort?

With a flotilla of ships surrounding the country, the U.S. also aims to repatriate desperate Haitians and prevent a wave of refugees reaching Florida. Through this assertion of power, the U.S. aims also to reassert its dominance in the Caribbean and Latin America over regional rivals like Venezuela and international ones like China. Finally, the U.S. intends to impose a traditional neoliberal economic program on Haiti itself in the interest of U.S. multinational corporations and the Haitian ruling class.

more: http://www.isreview.org/issues/70/feat-haitiquake.shtml">IS Review

[Mika]

1. US liberation = staring down the muzzle of a gun

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[protocol rv]

2. Makes sense to me

if they don't surround Haiti with US navy ships, then Haitians will take boats and go to Florida in huge numbers. This isn't really good for the US - it amounts to uncontrolled illegal immigration. Since the USA has a limit to the number of immigrants it can accept, it makes sense for the country as a whole to stop the illegal immigration and have a rational, organized immigration system which allows for the introduction of people who are carefully screened to make sure they are healthy, able to work in areas where there's limited workers (why import people into the US for jobs anybody can do if there's high unemployment? All this does is hurt America's poor).

Regarding the US response, whether it's similar to katrina or not, the US military is meant to go blow up things. I suspect most people would really prefer they would reduce their military budget and if they wish to do good, they could develop a fleet of aid vessels already loaded with the typical needs for a refugee population after a disaster: tents, food, clean water plants, portable hospitals, electricity generators, and so on. But the US has its own priorities. Whether we like it or not, the fact is they provide this with military personnel, and in the end they sure do a lot more than other countries, even if this is done inefficiently.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Yeah, it would "make sense" to you--given your racist comment about "Indians"...

...here:

Comment 36, here: “Indian presenting a complaint?”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x30994

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My comment at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x31115

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We don't need corpo-fascist views here. We get enough of that from TV, radio and newspapers. So why don't you go peddle your rightwing crap to Venezuelans, hm? Why are you trying to convince U.S. progressive Democrats that the U.S. military occupation of Haiti "makes sense"? Could it be that you want that military in your own country, re-installing your rightwing compadres in power, and handing the oil back over to Exxon Mobil?

On second thought, keep pushing your racist, corpo-fascist crapola at DU. It is as discreditable as the "tea baggers."

[Judi Lynn]

4. We have a subset of them, don't we? Pity.

Anyone with a conscience knows what the situation is.

Anyone who has sold his conscience doesn't have a voice in this anyone wants to hear.

This country already has too much to atone for without adding new karmic debt. Our financial debt is only a shadow of the moral debt accrued.

[Bacchus39]

5. interesting.... I looked back at the post of Protocol of an Indian presenting a complaint

and in the link in the post he responded to there is a photo showing an Indian presenting a complaint. so what was the issue here???

[Zorro]

6. I find Protocol's opinions to be quite interesting

It's refreshing to read the perspective of a South American on topics of regional interest, even if one doesn't agree with his every opinion.

It's certainly much more interesting and refreshing than the rigidly pedantic, strident flapdoodle that is promoted in this forum as the collective opinion of "progressive Democrats".

[protocol rv]

7. The naval encirclement makes sense

Patriot, there you go again. You know the insults don't work on me.

The US naval encirclement of Haiti makes sense. I never said "the US military occupation of Haiti makes sense".

The naval maneuver stops Haitians from going to the boats to reach the USA. It really doesn't matter if they're African, European, or Martian descended, the US does have a problem with high unemployment, and dumping a lot of people into the US job market will be hard on the poor, which in turn hurts the Democrats' chances. As a pragmatist, I prefer Democrats to the Republicans, therefore I think the encirclement makes sense. Priority number one is to avoid another Bush, dude.

Also, did you notice Cuba is a lot closer and they don't take the boats to go to Cuba?

Why do I write here? Because I enjoy criticizing the USA, and here i can do it, Americans read it, and I don't get censored or lose my posting privileges. I wanted to post mostly in the general discussions, Palestine and similar forums, but I read the stuff you guys were writing about the communists and communistoids in Latin America, and I felt I should provide a counterpoint, given your inaccurate propaganda-like postings.

I did notice you aren't telling us how great Venezuela's economy is anymore. I thought it was pretty weird to see somebody post that stuff when we were suffering so much with high inflation - especially when high inflation hurts the poor more than the rich, who just raise prices and move their money in US dollars.

At least you have the common sense to understand the ruin we are seeing in Venezuela, and you can no longer put out the baloney about how great our economy has turned out under Chavez. But wait, there's more...it's getting worse every day. And your buddy's politics are turning more and more radical and autocratic. Did you hear what the PSUV (aka communist trained seals) candidates are asked to do now? Sign a document pledging loyalty to Chavez. Buddy, this "bolivarian democracy" is starting to feel a lot like Germany just before Krystalnacht. :(