Post by Odracir on Feb 24, 2004 17:20:40 GMT -5
Azuna said:
While that is true, the peace-talks all involved Aristide remaining in power until his term is up, which is sometime in 2006. The rebels do not want that. Also, sending fifty marines to secure the embassy is hardly doing anything to help the situation. Sure, it probably won't hurt it, but I strongly doubt that the rebels would have attacked the embassy. All they want it to have Aristide out of power; one of the rebel generals even stated that they would try to not have any politically-driven killings, and to try to stop the looting. They got what they wanted.
You are being quite self-contradictory there. First, war should be a last resort. Now, we smell something brewing in Haiti and we should send troops in right away. If Bush did send more than 50, people would say that he was trying to invade it. That's politics.
The US did not intervene in any way. We, apparently, have some sort of supernatural right (that only belongs to us) to patrol the rest of the world, so why not help out in Haiti? My history is a little rusty, but was Aristide a US-installed president (this is an actual question, because I can't quite remember)? Either way, why didn't we intervene? People were dying! Gosh! According to the Times*, they were executing people who were pointed out as supporters of Aristide.
Bush did not put Arisitde in power. A certain president named Bill Clinton did, you know, the same one that totally blew the Somalia situation? Aristide was an elected president (in a huge landslide), and was later overthrown in a coup. Clinton, in his infinite wisdom, decided to put the thug back in power. Great idea Bill!
My post was meant to convey that we have done nothing to help either side in Haiti--we just let them duke it out. Hardly the oh-so-wonderful land of the free, home of the brave, etc., etc. that some users here make us out to be, eh?
The US has sent in negotiators. The rebels had until 5:00 EST to make a decision. It is 10 minutes past that now, and I don't know what they chose.
As a footnote, the irony is that a lot (all?) of the rebel leaders were formerly part of the Haitian army before Aristide disbanded it in 1991, I think the year was.
Maybe they were mad that they lost their jobs in the poorest country in the western hemisphere? And I think it was either 1994 or 1995 one of the two. I believe that he was elected in 1991.
*The only three news sources I check on a frequent basis are the World Socialist Web Site, the Times, and The Register.
World Socialist Website?????? How objective do you expect them to be? Seriously, you know they put a huge left-spin on EVERYTHING. There are tons of Times and tons of Registers in the world so please specify.