"The people of Haiti do not want outside intervention." In a recent radio-station poll taken in Haiti, 81 percent wanted it. There is no fuel, no way to move food or clean water or run pumps. Tens of thousands WILL die of cholera and starvation in any case. Hundreds of thousands WILL DIE of it if we do nothing. Daniel Larison, with the best intentions in the world, would deny international solidarity to the people of Haiti because of a general aversion to U.S. intervention. He is right about this. I fully share his aversion, remembering Vietnam, Iraq and now Ukraine. I personally went to jail eight times protesting that first atrocity. But he is applying generally-valid deductive reasoning to a particular situation he has not studied, because he omitted the blockade of fuel and gang violence from his analysis. We can go turn on the tap and drink clean water. The Haitians can't. Cholera is spreading because they have dirty water to drink or none at all. Would that the Haitians could handle this situation as Daniel Larison recommends, but they cannot. Would that the question were as easy as he contends it is, but it is not. There are only bad answers -- welcome to Haiti! Either international assistance with the blight on sovereignty, or mass disease and starvation. He has fled the harsh truth for generally-valid verities. Haiti is sui generis. He seeks the easy way out by contending that the United States is backing the wrong horse in Haiti and if we would just get out of the way the wonderful civil society of Haiti would rally and provide governance. Oh how lovely and how I wish it were true! The unpleasant truth is that Haitian politics is about one clique contending with another for the spoils of office. Those out of office have met in a hotel and declared that they represent the Haitian people. There is always an in-office and out-of-office clique with the same goal, les mêmes pots de vin. For thirty years I've been watching to see someone different come in, and they haven't. That's not for lack of turnover. It goes deeper. What we can say for sure is that international peacekeeping, decided on at the U.N. Security Council, has helped. Before the U.N. mission came in 2004, five of the last seven presidents had been overthrown. While it was there, all four handed over the sash to successors. After if left, the president was assassinated. While it was there, Haiti held nine elections. Since it left, none. Yes, they introduced cholera and abused women. No Haitian will ever forget that. But you've got to weigh, weigh, weigh. Weigh those forfeitures against the catastrophic lack of governance and chaos that we've got now. And don't listen to one group of Haitians, listen to the generality.
Since when did the Empire give the tip of a turd for what the people want? Was there a vote before the War on Iraq that nobody told us about or something? The Empire does what the Empire wants.
"The people of Haiti do not want outside intervention." In a recent radio-station poll taken in Haiti, 81 percent wanted it. There is no fuel, no way to move food or clean water or run pumps. Tens of thousands WILL die of cholera and starvation in any case. Hundreds of thousands WILL DIE of it if we do nothing. Daniel Larison, with the best intentions in the world, would deny international solidarity to the people of Haiti because of a general aversion to U.S. intervention. He is right about this. I fully share his aversion, remembering Vietnam, Iraq and now Ukraine. I personally went to jail eight times protesting that first atrocity. But he is applying generally-valid deductive reasoning to a particular situation he has not studied, because he omitted the blockade of fuel and gang violence from his analysis. We can go turn on the tap and drink clean water. The Haitians can't. Cholera is spreading because they have dirty water to drink or none at all. Would that the Haitians could handle this situation as Daniel Larison recommends, but they cannot. Would that the question were as easy as he contends it is, but it is not. There are only bad answers -- welcome to Haiti! Either international assistance with the blight on sovereignty, or mass disease and starvation. He has fled the harsh truth for generally-valid verities. Haiti is sui generis. He seeks the easy way out by contending that the United States is backing the wrong horse in Haiti and if we would just get out of the way the wonderful civil society of Haiti would rally and provide governance. Oh how lovely and how I wish it were true! The unpleasant truth is that Haitian politics is about one clique contending with another for the spoils of office. Those out of office have met in a hotel and declared that they represent the Haitian people. There is always an in-office and out-of-office clique with the same goal, les mêmes pots de vin. For thirty years I've been watching to see someone different come in, and they haven't. That's not for lack of turnover. It goes deeper. What we can say for sure is that international peacekeeping, decided on at the U.N. Security Council, has helped. Before the U.N. mission came in 2004, five of the last seven presidents had been overthrown. While it was there, all four handed over the sash to successors. After if left, the president was assassinated. While it was there, Haiti held nine elections. Since it left, none. Yes, they introduced cholera and abused women. No Haitian will ever forget that. But you've got to weigh, weigh, weigh. Weigh those forfeitures against the catastrophic lack of governance and chaos that we've got now. And don't listen to one group of Haitians, listen to the generality.
Since when did the Empire give the tip of a turd for what the people want? Was there a vote before the War on Iraq that nobody told us about or something? The Empire does what the Empire wants.
This is a joke, right?