Will we stand behind our French and Haitian brothers and sisters?
 

Now that we are the world-wide defenders of democracy, I guess we will soon invade Haiti. Shouldn't we get going on this before France beats us to it?

France Holds Emergency Meeting on Haiti
Tue Feb 17,11:35 AM ET
By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - France's government gathered an emergency team Tuesday to deal with the increasingly dangerous situation in former colony Haiti and was weighing whether peacekeepers could intervene to calm the impoverished island's bloody uprising.

Logistics including a possible U.N. role must be resolved before any French venture in the Caribbean could get under way. But France could in the meantime offer aid and other emergency services from its territories in the region, said Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.

"What can France do specifically? First, we want to reflect on what could be done urgently. Can we deploy a peacekeeping force? We are in contact with all of our partners in the framework of the United Nations (news - web sites), which has sent a humanitarian mission to Haiti to see what is possible," he told France Inter radio.

He cautioned that deploying peacekeepers "is very difficult" when a nation is in the throes of violence. Still, he said he called an urgent meeting at his ministry Tuesday of a "crisis group" of French officials "to see what immediate contribution we can make."

He noted that France has territories in the region and expertise in the fields of education, health and humanitarian aid.

"We have some very important assets close to Haiti, with our departments in the Antilles and Guiana," he said. "It is all that that we want to make available when the time comes and if the circumstances permit," he said.

The French Defense Ministry said it has 4,000 military personnel at two bases in the area, in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Asked whether an intervention could be quickly organized to stop a worsening of violence, De Villepin replied: "Absolutely. We have the means and many friendly countries are mobilized."

"They are ready to act. We must find ways to do that in liaison with the Haitian parties so that a process of dialogue can resume," he said.

Among France's top concerns is the welfare of about 2,000 French citizens who live in Haiti, mostly the capital, officials in Paris said.

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has appealed for international help to quell the uprising that has killed more than 50 people and destabilized the Caribbean country. Rebels have taken control of parts of the north and center of Haiti.

De Villepin said "many countries are ready to mobilize in support of Haiti."


"But, of course, that supposes a spurt of effort by Haiti's political class, that President Aristide commits himself to a respect of civil peace. That's his first responsibility."

He called for talks.

"This implies that President Aristide, who over the years has let things degenerate, can find the strength to move toward dialogue, and that all Haitian officials think only of one thing: Haiti and the Haitian people who have suffered for too many years," the French minister said.

Discontent has grown in Haiti since Aristide's party swept flawed legislative elections in 2000. Opposition politicians refuse to participate in new elections unless the president steps down — but Aristide insists he will stay until his term ends in February 2006.

"It's a country in a catastrophic situation, with 90 percent of the population that lives on less than $1 a day, life expectancy that is around 52 years," said De Villepin. "It's a country that today is on the edge of chaos."

They're just looking for a market for Peugeot's:rolleyes:

If they want to sell cars, why don't they bring us some of those Citreons like they have in the World Rally Championships? It seems like they could sell some of those over here, maybe cut into Subaru's territory.

I've heard some of those Haitians have considered thinking about discussing the possibility of potentially investigating the notion of theoretically stockpiling hypothetical WMD's. That's good enough for me--let's roll!!!!

Let France take care of it.

France will take care of everything. Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill.

The history of Haiti is simply fascinating. When I read about Toussaint Louverture I was surprised I hadn't heard of him until high school. Truly a new-world hero.

It's nice that you had a chance to spend some time in Haiti and experience life there. My experience with Haiti is limited to a series of books and film clips of Mrs Duvalier smoking a cigarette in absolute disgust as she's being rushed to the airport for her early morning flight to Geneva (after that late night party held in her honor). As far as I know the family live principally in France these days.

Botnst, I assure you Mr Villepin knows what he's doing and is doing everything possible to improve the situation.

I happened to be in the Haitian section of Miami
(was Lost easy to do in Miami)the day that their last dictator was over thrown it was a crazy scene to say the least........

William Rogers........

We go into Haiti and withall the emergency food handouts, displace all their farmers and destroy their agricultural base, so now Hatians must be dependant on the world to feed them Another f*ck up by american led by archer daniels midland.

somehow, we have a responsibility to these people to at least restore them to where they were before we screwed them up

we're doing such a good job in afghanistan that annual opium production is up to 3600 metric tonnes last year. Under the Taliban rule, production was 0 tonnes. another great american job.

For those who claim that liberating the Iraqi people from a murderous tyrant was sufficient justification for invading that country, doesn't the same rationale apply to Haiti? Why aren't we invading there?

By the way, fj bertrand, I have a 1979 IH686 with the American-built diesel engine. What a sweet tractor. Reliable. Easy to work on. Great ergodynamics.

LOL

Sure seems that your visits to Haiti and DR have influenced you to be a bit more open and to a better understanding to their struggles. :)

And what's wrong with that? Now we get to sell them some good "healthy" gen foods. And we get to keep on numbing ourselves down with some good cheap stuff. I call that a big win for the good guys. That should help our economy too. Yey! :eek:

The reference to "murderous" is based on news reports that Aristide has had political opponents murdered, although nothing remotely on the scale Saddam used to do. If Aristide is murderous, then I suppose we need a stronger word for what Saddam did, but is that the relevant question? Has the so-called Bush Doctrine (a poor name, IMHO, because it implies that Bush actually gave the matter some thought) evolved into a policy that we only invade other countries if the leader has murdered more than a certain number of his opponents? Or is the Iraq invasion separate from the Bush Doctrine?

Just because Aristide was elected does not mean he hasn't become a dictator. Aristide's opponents claim that he uses the military to perpetuate his non-democratic regime. If so, then he has become a dictator.

As for strategic interest, there are Bush apologists (Hannity being perhaps the most obvious and blatant) who criticize "liberals" for being hypocritical on Iraq. Following in that great Limbaugh tradition, Hannity sets up a straw man, saying that "liberals'" who oppose the Iraq invasion obviously don't care about human rights. My question about the Haiti/Iraq comparison is directed to people who subscribe that viewpoint. If none of you agree with Hannity on that, good.

Finally, I believe that the oppression in Haiti goes beyond 60 deaths.

The point I attempted to make was that some Bush supporters, when it suits them, will say that strategic interest is irrelevant. To them, it is enough that Saddam is a bad guy. You raised the issue of strategic interest, which was not responsive to my question about whether the rationale for justifying the Iraq invasion applies to Haiti. That's all I was trying to say.

And, to paraphrase Z, there might be some Haitians giving serious consideration to discussing the possibility of engaging in potential WMD program related activities. What more do we need?

You have got it wrong- 12 years of investigation, 500,000 civilians murdered, and 14 UN resolutions violated. Then we will vote against them (France), condemn their actions, sit back, and when they go in, we'll scream that they did it for oil. Oh, wait, I guess we can do that with about half of the African countries right this minute, with the Ivory Coast being the latest example. And thanks for reminding us of WHO put our soldiers in harm's way in 1994- no imminent threat then, neither!