[WAsummit] Haïti's needs vs. US "national security?"

[Larry Yates]

If this email makes sense to you, you may want to contact your Member  
of Congress or the White House to ask that US assistance to Haïti be  
demilitarized. And you may want to pass on this, or pass on these  
ideas, to people you know.

=========

Following the lead of Sharon Martinas' keen mind and keener s**t  
detector on the White Allies Summit email list, I did a little  
research. Based on what I found out, I have some serious concerns  
about what is being done in Haiti in our name, and whether the  
people's urgent needs will be met by the approach the US government is  
taking.

THE US NATIONAL SECURITY ELITE ON HAITI

The Washington Post's front page (which I call the national security  
elite's bulletin board) headlines today (Monday) "Security fears mount  
in lawless post-earthquake Haiti." This is a troubling signal. Why the  
emphasis on lawlessness rather on the clearly more serious concerns of  
food and water shortages, lack of shelter and medical care? Is law and  
order really the main concern for Haïti right now?

Of course, Haitian society is in terrible condition. Tens or hundreds  
of thousands of people have died, and most people in the Port au  
Prince area are homeless, jobless, and with no means of support. But  
is Haiti "lawlessness" the same kind of fantasy as Katrina's looters,  
snipers and rapists? Is this lawlessness what Washington decision- 
makers see when they look at a "black rabble" in trouble, yes, even  
with a Black president? Is the image of lawlessness being used to  
justify a more military approach than is needed?

The right-wing Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/LatinAmerica/wm2754.cfm 
   has recommended a national security agenda for our intervention in  
Haïti. Is this kind of approach overshadowing or delaying the  
humanitarian agenda? Is US control more important to our decision- 
makers than human lives, as it clearly is to the Heritage Foundation  
writers?

PAT ROBERTSON IS RELEVANT

It's worth remembering Pat Robertson's comment here. Ol' Pat was not  
just talking randomly out of his posterior as he did after 9/11. Pat  
Robertson was citing history, or at least historical myth -- the  
generations-old myth that the Haitians had a pact with the Devil. This  
was gospel truth to Pat Robertson's people, from his Jim Crow U.S.  
Senator father to the slaveholding kinfolk he cites on his official  
website. The "pact" he talks about is known to Haïtians as Boukman's  
prayer -- an appeal for divine justice that was the spark of the  
Haitian Revolution.

Nothing was more threatening to the slavocracy or the segregationists  
than the possibility of a prosperous and unfettered Haiti. Even after  
the rise of the Soviet Union, Jim Crow attitudes towards Haïti still  
determined US policy. Today, Haïti has no oil, no terrorist training  
camps. The fact that Haïti is close to us geographically is irrelevant  
in a world where North Korea and Azerbaijan are strategically  
important. Yet the US elites still find it important to get in Haïti's  
business as recently as when they kidnapped the elected President  
Aristide.

WHY DOES HAITI REALLY MATTER?

Think for a moment what a strong Haïti would mean to African- 
Americans. Think of a proud nation, right in the Caribbean, born from  
the rebellion of slaves, that African-Americans, and all people of  
good will, could admire rather than pity. Now think of it, as the  
Heritage Foundation folks do, allied to Cuba and Venezuela. However  
you think about it, this would be a shock to the US system as we know  
it. It is not paranoia to believe there are many leaders in Washington  
DC who would do a lot to prevent this. And unfortunately it is quite  
believable that they would be willing to see a lot of Haïtians die  
unnecessarily -- or at least put saving lives second to what they say  
as US interests. Is this why the U.S. aid effort is so militarized?


IS THE US MILITARY THE RIGHT CHOICE TO RUN HAITI DISASTER RELIEF?

Did the US military need to completely take over the sole functioning  
airport near Port Au Prince? Should the military be controlling the  
aid flow, and is it qualified to do so? Are Cuban and Venezuelan aid,  
which are close, culturally appropriate and probably more friendly to  
the average Haïtian, being blocked, and at what cost of lives? Why  
isn't a UN body or the Caribbean entity CARICOM or some other neutral  
entity in charge of the relief effort?

And no matter how pure the US motives, will Haïtians simply accept  
total US military control of their situation at face value? Haïtians  
who have seen a recent President kidnapped by US forces, and in the  
last century, in the words of Marine Major General Smedley Butler, saw  
the Marines invade over and over again to "make Haiti .. a decent  
place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in." The  
fact is that the US military is the single entity most identified with  
thwarting the democratic will of the Haïtian people for more than a  
century.

TELL THE PRESIDENT AND THE CONGRESS TO PUT THE HAITIAN PEOPLE'S URGENT  
SURVIVAL OVER US NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS -- PUT THE RELIEF EFFORT  
IN INTERNATIONAL CIVILIAN HANDS.



(On the immediate situation, I recommend these articles, though I  
cannot confirm everything stated in them:
The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian  
Operation or an Invasion? by Michel Chossudovsky
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17000)

and
POLITICS OF THE EARTHQUAKE
RESPECT THE PEOPLE OF HAITI
By Robert Roth
http://haitisolidarity.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=368


BTW, I am not suggesting that US troops could not or would not do a  
brave and generous job of helping Haïtians as part of a broad  
humanitarian effort. It's their civilian bosses in Washington I'm  
worried about.
=========

Larry Yates
llyates at shentel.net
www.user.shentel.net/llyates
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