US says no troops to Haiti as country reels from explosion of gang violence
US says no troops to Haiti as country reels from explosion of gang violence
Washington says no despite ‘frantic’ talks between diplomats, as bodies lie in street and army battles gun-toting gang members
It was a French colony, so maybe France should help. And yes I am fairly aware of the French, free, and American parts of Haiti’s history.
Funny how the Dominican Republic is on the same island and it's a tropical paradise.
One should read the history of Haiti. They were the first slaves to revolt and become free, so France wanted them to pay for "lost business". So they had to pay off a huge debt. And the U.S. didn't want Haiti to succeed because it would have encouraged slaves in the U.S. to revolt. So Haiti got roadblock after roadblock.
It's a little reminiscent of Cuba in a way. They're still under Cold War/Red Scare sanctions for whatever reason, and that's not done well for their ability to grow and develop.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The United States has said it will not send troops to Haiti after a stunning eruption of gang violence seemingly designed to bring down the Caribbean nation’s enfeebled government and its unpopular prime minister, Ariel Henry.
On Monday night, nearly five days after powerful organized crime bosses launched a wave of deadly and apparently coordinated attacks, the US news group McClatchy reported there had been “frantic” exchanges between US and Haitian diplomats that had raised the prospect of an emergency deployment of US special forces to help restore order.
More than 2,300km south in Haiti’s seaside capital, Port-au-Prince, the mood remained jittery and uncertain amid the still-developing gang uprising that has seen rifle-toting combatants target highly strategic and symbolic locations including police stations, penitentiaries, a container port and the city’s international airport, where residents could hear intense gunfire as army troops sought to repel heavily armed invaders.
“But the scale of the attacks is unprecedented,” added Le Cour, a senior expert from the Geneva-based civil society group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Jean-Marc Biquet, the head of the Médecins Sans Frontières mission in Haiti, said its trauma centre near Port-au-Prince’s airport had been overwhelmed by patients suffering bullet wounds.
Some analysts suspect the criminal assault – which has claimed at least nine lives, including those of four police officers – is designed to dissuade the international community from sending its security force to confront them.
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Sounds like this is just another U.S. or other superpower backed coup attempt.
Why isn't the US sending peacekeepers?
Why should they? Why isn't the UN? Why isn't the French?
It sounds like UN and French aid would be welcome, too. The article talks about the US's refusal to send military aid.
The US would be well-suited to send military aid in the near-term, they have military bases with helicopters in range of Haiti. They could secure the capital from the rebelling gangs within a day.
I'm not familiar with the situation in Haiti, but keep in mind that organized crime is inherently fascist. I would like an explanation from the developed countries in the area why they don't think they should prevent an entire country from tumbling into fascism.
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Haiti is not strategically important.
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Haiti is a failed state. It isn't just a matter of re-establishing peace. The whole society has to be re-built.
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The US invested billions and billions and BILLIONS of dollars and a ton of social capital trying to rebuild a failed state in Afghanistan and it didn't work. Not only did it not work, but the US has got nothing but scorn for it. No one thinks it would be any better in Haiti.
The US had a moment of glory when it won WW2 and then rebuilt both Japan and Europe into world class economic powers. Of course, those were highly civilized, sophisticated, and industrialized states and so America's job was easier. Places like Afghanistan, Haiti, and most of Africa...not so much.
Any Western government would be crazy to set foot in countries like that. Maybe send some humanitarian aid, but otherwise stay the fuck out. Let their cultural peers help them out.
...The US had a moment of glory when it won WW2 and then rebuilt both Japan and Europe into world class economic powers. Of course, those were highly civilized, sophisticated, and industrialized states and so America's job was easier. Places like Afghanistan, Haiti, and most of Africa...not so much.
Sooo much ewww.
How in the world, I wonder, did a beautiful island become suddenly swarmed and populated with an essentially non-homogeneous group of people from across the ocean? Surely their "uncivilized and unsophisticated" nature wouldn't have allowed them to cross such a vast expanse. Such a mystery!
Any Western government would be crazy to set foot in countries like that. Maybe send some humanitarian aid, but otherwise stay the fuck out. Let their cultural peers help them out.
You're right, it's best that outisders remain totally uninvolved and let nature take its course amoungst this anthropologically typical country and neighbors.... Well, I guess yeah, we can pitch in some goodfeels and be a tiny lifeline for a limited to few, after all, we gotta sleep at night.
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Probably because Haiti doesn't want them. They just can't send them in, that would be an invasion.
Too many pro Putin bootlickers. It's necessary for their survival that they don't understand why invading a sovereign nation is wrong.
Please no. Somehow someway we would just make it worse. There are plenty of ways to help without guns.
Let's establish a safe zone and slowly build out with the amenities we've come to expect in America.
Oh wait, that would work but it won't be easy and cost money.
We only do things that are easy unless they make rich people richer faster.
No oil or strategic bases to take.
Because it's not a white nation.
Why not, US. Your nose and fingers are in every one else's business across the globe. But of course, haha. Not Haiti!
FYI, Haiti was the first nation to revolt against the globalized system of chattel slavery and the west will likely NEVER stop punishing them for it. The U.S. government has overthrown democratically elected presidents of Haiti several times including most recently in 2004.
It is vitally important for USians and other westerners to understand the historical context of Haiti and refuse to reduce it to a violent backwater place in the way colonialism and racism attempts to do. There are reasons Haiti is the way it is and those reasons primarily have to do with Haiti daring to stand up to western colonialism/chattel slavery and winning.
Haiti declared its independence from France on January 1st, 1804. From 1791 to 1804, the slaves of Haiti, then known as the French colony Saint-Domingue, fought off their French slave owners. France fought to hold on to Haiti, as it was their wealthiest colony, exporting sugar, indigo, and coffee. In 1804, under the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture, they succeeded in throwing off their colonial power. The Haitian Revolution marked a significant event in history. Haiti became the first modern state to abolish slavery, the first state in the world to be formed from a successful revolt of the lower classes (in this case slaves), and the second republic in the Western Hemisphere, only twenty-eight years behind the United States (Reinhardt 247).
Because of the color of their skin.
What nation are you from? Why such hatred and racism for Americans?