Haiti Re-Fubared

Buckethead Buckethead

It appears that the situation in Haiti is quickly descending into sadly typical chaos. The United States is sending fifty Marines from the Fleet Anti-Terrorist Security Team to Port-au-Prince to help guard the US Embassy there, but there is no sign that the United States has any plans for large scale intervention. US Forces have libervated Haiti several times in the over 200 years since Haiti won its independence from France. The recent rebellion follows a pattern that is a hallowed tradition in Haitian politics. The rich Haitians get tired of the current government, and hire rebels to overthrow it. The rebels get money, loot and the opportunity for youthful hijinks. The former president and cronies move away to a comfortable retirement. The rich Haitians make some windfall profits, and one fo their number is elevated to the presidency. Then, he begins his year and a half to ten years of kleptocracy - until the cycle repeats itself.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when our propensity to invade other countries was higher than currently, periods of American occupation were the only relief that Haitans had from this regular cycle of theft and violence. Later, the Duvalier regime managed to avoid the cycle through brutal repression of potential rebels. For all the hopes many had for Aristide, he seems to be more than anything a throwback to the typical Haitian leaders of the past - and the current rebellion is the traditional response.

Anyone interested in the history of America's long history of military interventions and the generally positive results thereof, I highly recommend Max Boot's excellent history, The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power.

Posted by Buckethead Buckethead on   |   § 6

§ 6 Comments

1

Buckethead,
there's a dismaying corollary to this pattern you speak of. It's possible to view Haiti as one of the U.S.'s pioneer experiments in nation-building and democracy-spreading, and as such it's a cautionary example for the present.You know, because things haven't exactly gone well there over the last hundred years.

US interventions aren't necessarily just Haiti's saviour, but also possibly one of its biggest problems. It's a mixed blessing.

Johno Johno

3

Buckethead: Check out Dean Esmay's post [url=http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/006383.html#006383]here[/url], on the futility of American involvement in Haiti.

"It's not like we've tried to straighten that place out before, right?

Yes, I'm being sarcastic. For well over 100 years, America has been trying to do right by that little island. No matter what we do, we seem to make it worse. Despite the best intentions of the Clinton adminstation, the Truman administration, the Roosevelt administration, no matter what we do it just gets worse."

Johno Johno

4

What I was saying is that periods of American occupation relieved them from constant cycles of rebellion. I wasn't really making any comment on current or past American policy - just noting that Haiti is at it again.

America has been much better at fighting small wars than nation building, though Marine administration of occupied territories was noted for its calm, orderly and corruption free nature. While the Marines did build roads, hospitals, schools and train a constabulary; all of that would immediately go to hell as soon as we left.

Haiti was monumentally screwed up well before our first intervention around the turn of the century, and it is screwed up still. I haven't read Power's book, but I refuse to believe that our interventions in Haiti have made the situation worse. Not improved it, but I don't think we've done any more harm than they would have done on their own.

My aunt has been to Haiti several times, and she always returns heartbroken. She says the people there are wonderful, but incapable of organizing to do any good thing beyond the smallest levels. There is nothing wrong with individual Haitians, but collectively they have no clue how to run an even moderately impoverished society. They have stripped their part of the island of trees, there is no economy to speak of, and no hope either.

The only thing that might work is a blunt program of colonization; but no matter how beneficient the motives, I don't think many people are going to be calling for that, least of all NDR or Samantha Powers.

Buckethead Buckethead

[ You're too late, comments are closed ]