Re: virus: Re: virus: Déja vu All Over Again in Haiti

From: Walter Watts (wlwatts@cox.net)
Date: Sat Mar 06 2004 - 14:49:40 MST

  • Next message: Erik Aronesty: "Re: virus: Re: virus: D?ja vu All Over Again in Haiti"

    I've NO idea what Aristide's policies or conduct were, but just looking at pictures
    of his face, he looks like he might be a little slow out of the hut.

    Walter

    Dr Sebby wrote:

    > ....although the guy was apparently quite the corrupt cunt. i suspect that
    > the US govt. waits for a natural weakness and THEN slip into the situation.
    > Haiti has been a long standing example of earthly hell. NOTHING we could do
    > could make it worse at this point...so all complaints are somewhat
    > discountable imo.
    >
    > DrSebby.
    > "Courage...and shuffle the cards".
    >
    > ----Original Message Follows----
    > From: "Erik Aronesty" <erik@zoneedit.com>
    > Reply-To: virus@lucifer.com
    > To: virus@lucifer.com
    > Subject: virus: Re: virus: Déja vu All Over Again in Haiti
    > Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 10:34:00 -0400
    >
    > We just didn't want a populist president in Haiti.
    >
    > The word is that we kidnapped the president.
    >
    > Standard US imperialist pattern: use the CIA to prop up a dictator, wait
    > until he ruins country, then “rescue” the country with an invasion.
    >
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Jei <jei@cc.hut.fi>
    > Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 14:25:21
    > To:virus@lucifer.com
    > Subject: virus: Déja vu All Over Again in Haiti
    >
    > http://www.independent.org/tii/news/040302Eland.html
    >
    > Déja vu All Over Again in Haiti
    > By Ivan Eland
    >
    > When Americans see unrest, violence, rebellion or civil war in other nations
    > on the TV news, they often rightly sympathize with the plight of the foreign
    > citizens put at risk. Yet news is.well,.news, not history. Americans rarely
    > realize that their own government, somewhere along the line, most likely
    > contributed to the crisis du jour.
    >
    > The United States is a superpower that meddles frequently-either overtly or
    > covertly-in the business of nations all over the world. Americans just
    > assume that such interventions have a positive effect in the countries
    > concerned. All to often, however, what seemed to U.S. policymakers like a
    > good idea at the time turns out to be counterproductive, and sometimes
    > disastrous, in the long-term. For example, in the 1980s, the United States
    > helped Iraq, which had invaded Iran, defeat and weaken that chief regional
    > rival-all the while looking the other way when Iraq used poison gas against
    > Iran and Iranian supported Iraqi Kurds. No longer worried about Iran after
    > that victory, Iraq was then free to invade Kuwait, and the result was 13
    > years of war between the United States and its former secret ally. Likewise,
    > during that same decade, the Carter and Reagan administrations, to oppose
    > their Soviet Cold War rival, funded and trained radical Islamic rebels in
    > remote, non-strategic Afghanistan. After the rebels won that war, some of
    > them turned on the United States and became al Qaeda-one of the most dire
    > threats to the U.S. homeland in the history of the republic.
    >
    > And similarly, if we dig below the latest happenings in Haiti, we find much
    > more than first meets the eye. Much of Haiti's current problem lies in weak
    > civil institutions and no rule of law. Unfortunately, U.S. government policy
    > toward Haiti has contributed heavily to that state of affairs. Throughout
    > the 20th century, the U.S. military intervened repeatedly in Haiti. From
    > 1915 to 1934, the U.S. Marines even occupied the country. During that time,
    > they dissolved Haiti's parliament, instituted martial law and created the
    > thuggish Haitian army. That army-containing senior officers on the CIA's
    > payroll- overthrew a democratically-elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991.
    > The remnants of it, with U.S. help, have just done it again.
    >
    > In 1994, Bill Clinton, a Democrat, threatened to invade Haiti if the Haitian
    > military did not restore Aristide to power. But George W. Bush, a
    > Republican, having less use for the left-leaning leader, has now forced him
    > out. But there is more to schizophrenic U.S. policy than simply left-right
    > politics. In 1994, Haiti's internal strife was causing boatloads of refugees
    > to make a mad dash for Florida, a key electoral state. Although Haitians
    > then were fleeing mayhem, torture and other gross human rights violations,
    > the U.S. Coast Guard forced them back to Haiti. Similarly, the final straw
    > for George W. Bush during the current crisis was an attack on a Haitian
    > Coast Guard installation by pro-Aristide supporters-an attempt to shut down
    > the return of refugees. The number of boat people now fleeing the Caribbean
    > nation is less than in 1994, but the chaos and potential all-out civil war
    > there threatened to dramatically increase the flow. Keeping Haitian refugees
    > out of the United States is the primary driver of policy for both Democratic
    > and Republican administrations.
    >
    > Of course, both the Clinton and Bush administrations must bear the moral
    > responsibility for directing a rich nation to turn away poor refugees, many
    > of whose lives have been endangered. But the Bush administration is also put
    > in the embarrassing position of ousting a democratically-elected leader
    > after its high-flying rhetoric about invading Iraq to spread democracy.
    > Granted, there were irregularities in Aristide's election win in 2000 and
    > plenty of corruption (there always is in Haiti), but Aristide was elected
    > twice and even peacefully turned power over to a successor in 1996.
    > Furthermore, the opposition fighters-many formerly in the army, police and
    > paramilitary-have thuggish pasts as bad or worse than Aristide's.
    >
    > No workable solution can be imposed from the outside on Haitians, least of
    > all by a superpower that helped destroy Haitian civil society in the first
    > place. Haitians have to learn to solve their own problems, instead of always
    > looking to the United States to send troops to bring temporary peace. Racing
    > in with military forces to quell disorder merely rewards those local forces
    > perennially initiating violence to draw in the United States. Paradoxically,
    > if the United States declared that it would not interfere in Haitian society
    > in any way under any circumstances, more Haitian lives would probably be
    > saved in the long-term and the country would likely be better off. That is,
    > removing the reward for violence would likely lessen its occurrence.
    >
    > But instead, the United States has again sent the Marines to Haiti. Don't
    > expect it to be the last time.
    >
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    --
    Walter Watts
    Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
    "Reminding you to help control the human population. Have your sexual partner spayed
    or neutered."
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