America Should Let Some Other Nation Take The Lead In Haiti

01 Feb, 2010 by John Hawkins

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Like most Americans, I’m glad that we help out other nations after disasters. It’s good Christian charity and hopefully, it helps out our image around the world.

That being said, we’re not in charge of disaster relief for the planet. Nobody in America raised our hand and said, “Ok, every time there’s a tragedy somewhere, we’ll be the ones to handle it.”

So, when we’re fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and I hear that we’re putting 20,000 of our troops in Haiti, it concerns me. How come we have to put more troops on the ground than the rest of the planet combined when we’re already doing more to fight Islamic terrorism and promote freedom than everyone else?

At a time when we have out of control deficits and are putting our children deeper in hock to the Chinese every day, we’re putting a hundred million dollars into Haiti and Obama says the, “investment will grow over the coming year.” Of course, it’s not an “investment.” It’s charity. Moreover, it’s not money we have laying around. It’s money we have to borrow, so we can give it as a handout. It’s like taking out a loan so we’ll have money to give to homeless people on our way to work.

But, at least the world appreciates what we’re doing, right? Well, some of them do. There have certainly been a few people in Haiti who’ve had kind words for us…for now at least. Of course, despite what you hear from liberals, there were lots of people in Iraq who had kind words for us when we arrived there, too. Gratitude seldom lasts.

Furthermore, as per usual, many people look at anything the US does as just one more opportunity to criticize our country. There’s the French:

The French minister in charge of humanitarian relief called on the UN to “clarify” the American role amid claims the military build up was hampering aid efforts.

Alain Joyandet admitted he had been involved in a scuffle with a US commander in the airport’s control tower over the flight plan for a French evacuation flight.

“This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” Mr Joyandet said.

Then there are the Haitian community organisations, which must do a pretty lousy job, considering the state of the community in Haiti:

Haitian community organisations have united to demand an “end to the militarisation of aid” and plead for international solidarity brigades to help the country’s reconstruction.

…”Massive humanitarian aid in Haiti is essential because of the magnitude of the catastrophe, but this aid should be constructive, articulating a different vision of the reconstruction process,” the organisations stressed.

“Instead of a new military occupation, Haiti needs international solidarity brigades to help in the struggle against illiteracy and in the construction of new systems of education and public health,” the communique, broadcast over the surviving radio stations in the capital, Port-au-Prince, stated.

Then there are the typical comments we’ve grown to expect from the socialists in South America:

Latin American leaders have condemned the ‘foreign occupation’ of the quake-hit Haiti and called for further efforts to mitigate the suffering of Haitians.

In his visit to the disaster region in Haiti on Friday, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), blasted the aid ‘imperialism’ arriving in the capital Port-au-Prince.

“In this (aid), there is also much imperialism, donor imperialism, donate first, but recover in military ways through NGOs,” he said.

His comments have also been reflected in a Friday statement by Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, in which he denounced the West’s ‘colonialism’ in Haiti and dubbed the devastations in Cuba’s eastern neighbor ‘a shame’ for mankind.

The Cuban minister said the abject poverty caused by colonialism, foreign occupation and plundering of Haiti’s natural resources were causing the current serious social situation, Prensa Latina reported.

It just goes on and on and will get louder over time.

What it all comes down to is that our military is really busy right now as is, we’re flat broke, and we get very little appreciation or strategic benefit from these huge humanitarian missions. So, with that in mind, how about we just scale it back a little bit and let someone else take the lead? Europe’s full of nations that believe they’re smarter and more capable than us, so why don’t we let them show us what they’ve got? The world’s full of countries that want to “lead,” so let them do it. We can still send a few bucks and some rescue personnel their way — and the American people have consistently proven to be more generous with their money than the people of any other nation. Why isn’t that enough?