U.S. Troops Bring Guns and Occupation to Haiti - Create Security Problems - Offer no Aid

And as usual you weighed in with nothing. But I do hope you learned something.

Good point Dagum, seems like you are one of the same fucktards that weighed in on this too. Much love to you and yours.

Wow what an epic comment battle on Current.!! SamuraiDave, cztheday JonRaymond, JanforGore, and all the other usual fucktards weighed in with 2 cents and pot-hole analysis of current events.

Sometimes reality is hard for some to see.

I guess what I was trying to say earlier, and not very responsibly, is that the pattern from what I am reading is that the US or its Military Leaders, someone calling the shots with regard to security, doesn't want the Haitian relief efforts to be very successful. That is the pattern I am seeing.

And turning back medical aid by reputable organizations like Doctors Without Borders, who claim that without such aid now more people will die.

Thanks Jan for some very good points.

I wanted to find out more information about the idea of the US's aid being slow to go to Haiti. So I looked up some older articles and actually found a website with a timeline with attached articles (http://www.mapreport.com/countries/haiti_2010_earthquake.html)

So on Jan 12th - "Earthquake Hits Haiti" (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/12/haiti.earthquake/) Excerpt: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that Washington is offering "our full assistance" to Haiti."

Jan 13th- "First U.S. military aid reaches quake-stricken Haiti" Excerpt: "One of the team's first jobs is to get the airport working to a point where it can handle all the flights coming in from around the world filled with people and supplies to help the victims of the quake.

The U.S. Navy also activated the hospital ship USNS Comfort, based in Baltimore, Maryland, on Wednesday. While the Southern Command has not officially asked for the ship, the Navy activated it proactively expecting it will be requested."

Also Jan 13 - "Aid faces logistical nightmares" Excerpt: "Three vessels loaded down with medical supplies, food, clothing and water for earthquake victims had nowhere to dock and offload, according to a Haitian shipping company who provided them.

Meanwhile, so many aid planes had landed at the Port-au-Prince's airport that a bottleneck was created, and space to unload aid items was at a premium. Some planes were held in the air because there was no space to land and unload them."

Jan 17 - "US begins airdrops" Excerpt: "Some 14,000 ready-to-eat meals and 15,000 litres of water were dropped north-east of the capital, Port-au-Prince, the US said. It had earlier said airdrops were too risky but congestion at the airport has hampered aid distribution. The US is now considering airdrops across Haiti. "

Jan 20th - (Not from the Timeline) "Even before the U.S. Navy's hospital ship, Comfort, anchored off the coast of Haiti on Wednesday, patients who were injured in last week's earthquake were airlifted onto the ship to receive care, the Miami Herald reports (Clark, 1/21). According to the Baltimore Sun, "patients were flown in by the Navy, Coast Guard or Air Force in one of the 30 helicopters available within the ship's range. Plans for a boat-based shuttle were foiled by an earthquake aftershock that flattened the pier the Comfort had expected to use and that jolted the ship as if it had hit ground. Ship officials identified an alternate boat-landing site by midafternoon" (Little, 1/21).

VOA News writes, "The Comfort's two helicopters have been coming and going at a rapid pace, with the ability to ferry up to 11 patients at a time to the hospital ship"

(http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/January/21/GH-012110-Haiti.aspx)

Within a day our military was there trying to prepare the airport runway, within 5 days we were airdropping food, within a week were were airlifting patients to a hospital ship. I am very confused about the idea of American aid being non-existent (as this title would claim) or even slow.

I just hope we don't forget about this situation in our American ADD style, the people of Haiti are going to need a lot of help for a long time to recover their health and country.

I believe that this will indeed be used as an opportunity to make a profit for the military industrial complex. Look already at what has been done to the agriculture of Haiti.They can no longer grow their own food! They are eating dirt! They are dependent on 'food aid' for their livelihoods. This is not freedom! Since the French got it from Spain and ruined their ecology by using them as slaves to cut down all of the forests to grow sugarcane for profit, Haiti has seen nothing but misery and the US is part of that history. In 1915 Wilson occupied Haiti using the Monroe Doctrine as his excuse, and the US was there until the late thirties.Then Bush 1 condoned Baby Doc Duvalier's reign of terror, then Clinton sent in 20,000 troops in 1994, and poverty ensued. In 2004 their democratically elected president Aristede was deposed by Bush 2 ( which was the second time he was deposed because he was for the people) and now between the hurricanes and this earthquake their country is ravaged so badly it will take deacdes to rebuild it. And that is exactly what the Bechtels and Monsantos of this world live for. And actually, Haiti is a very strategic location militarily, so it would also follow that the Pentagon has to be thinking of this, especially considering it's proximity to Cuba. My question is, if this is a purely humanitarian mission, why can't the military personnel deliver aid in cilvilian clothes? Why do they need to give the impression that they are the all powerful invaders? The memories of the Haitian people are long and filled with decades of nothing but violence, poverty, and occupation. So while there may be a humanitarian goal to this, it is not the only goal, and discussing that has just as much merit as simply trying to praise this as a round about way to praise Obama. If Bush were president now I wonder how the tone of some of these comments would change.

Ah, so you are just messing with my mind, Jubal? Please be gentle, I only have the two brain cells left, and they are no longer on speaking terms...

cztheday, the facts are presented clearly in the video here. Troops land with guns and no aid and create a security threat to doctors plain as day. The video can't lie. Another video shows doctors unable to find any kind of transportation for children about to die from infections. Add these up and you get a U.S. military with an occupation objective and little concern for medical aid. We all find this very believable based on the behavior of the U.S. government and military in recent years.

You have "counter" arguments which I don't understand, because there is nothing to counter. You can't deny we are there for occupation. You can't deny the troops who landed at that palace and overtook the hospital brought no aid and only guns. You can't deny doctors who say they create a security threat, not solve one (that never existed).

You say "Even assuming that the government was some kind of hive-minded monolithic entity, it would simply have no motivation to occupy Haiti...." It is there in the video. There is an occupation. Explain how what you see in that video is not an occupation. Forget what I say or what anyone argues. Just tell me what you see.

Are there other troops giving out aid somewhere else? Maybe. But in light of this video and the fact that there aren't any doctors praising the U.S. government or U.S. military medical relief effort, and the fact that one man there finds himself embarrassed to be an American - in light of all that it seems likely that the rogue video and photo op clips of the U.S. military "helping" people are likely photo op propaganda and token efforts.

They may be giving "some" help. But mostly they are occupying. We have 13,000 troops now going there. I want to see what those 13,000 are doing, not just clips of one Army medic saving Jo Jo Jones here or Sharon Army nurse saving someone else there. Show me the masses of troops.

On the other hand, the contingent that landed at the presidential palace seems quite substantial in comparison to the clips of "medical" assistance.

Show me some video of doctors there raving about how great the U.S. government and military is. One video. Do that and I'll be amazed if it isn't a clearly suspicious photo op situation. Even CNN news anchors question our government and military.

I don't know that there is a website that I could link to that would justify some of the comments I have been reading on other blogs, but the general gist is that allowing the people to die makes it easier for the corporate interests to come in and take over land for future development and establishment of franchises etc. I don't know if I completely agree with those comments, but I was getting bored reading Samurais on and on and on comments that I thought I would throw a whammy in there just to shake things up and get a predictable reaction. I guess I was being a irresponsible and testy. Sorry cztheday, its not my usual MO.

This was kind of fun and interesting for the first half-hour...but it is getting boring simply because there isn't a scintilla of evidence supporting Jon's position. Debates on Current really aren't that great when the other side doesn't have so much as a pair of deuces in their hand...

...but Jubal, while I kind of expect this kind of uber-shallow lunacy from Jon, I have to admit to being a little surprised at your comments...not because they may not be true but because I have come to expect you to back up your statements with a little more substance. Can you explain to me WHY American corporations would have an interest in "monopolizing" Haiti? And you explain to me what monopolizing Haiti even means?

I understand monopolizing an industry (telecom, energy, rail service, etc.) but how and why does one monopolize one of the poorest and smallest countries on the planet? I mean I get the whole "all corporations are evil" theory (horseshit if for no other reason than the vast majority of corporations in the U.S. are itty bitty, but I get the theory), but they all share one thing and that is the profit motive. When I look at Haiti I see misery, pain and poverty -- something they had all too much of even BEFORE the earthquake. What is going to draw corporations to Haiti?

I prefer my position than yours. Call me a conspiracy tin foil nut, but its far better than being a blinded true worshiper like yourself. You are sealed in the blood of the innocents.

The reason the troops are there is to slow down the hospitals providing aid so as many Haitians will die as possible. This is part of the larger program for Corporate interests in the US to completely monopolize the Island.

Give it up already, America has a far worse checkered past than France ever has had thanks to rogue factions of our government; a great example is the CIA.

More anti-military propaganda from JR. The time it takes to sift through your smear campaigns distracts people from real issues within our government and our armed forces. Why am I not surprised that a guy who got kicked out of the military has such an axe to grind?

Voted Down.

"Oh the French have a checkered past. That is rich." While "that is rich" is no doubt a stinging indictment of my response in your world, Jon, it is a little thin in terms of rebuttal. Clearly you have no knowledge or appreciation of the horrors visited upon Europe by the French under Napoleon as he sought to bring the entire continent under a French empire, not to mention the atrocities committed by the French in any number of their colonies -- Vietnam and their long struggle to throw off the yoke of French imperialism comes immediately to mind...but they murdered enough people just in Haiti to deserve the term "checkered past."

Note that I was only saying that the French criticizing Americans for foreign misadventure is like the pot calling the kettle black, not that the Americans have clean hands by any means. On the other hand, compared to French efforts at overseas conquest in Asia, Africa (God, the things they have done there would turn anyone's stomach) and North America (surely you have heard of the French and Indian Wars? No? Color me shocked), the U.S. has been positively isolationist.

I know that I am wasting my breath (keystrokes) on you. You have already proven yourself to be utterly uninterested in facts. If you had any to support your deranged arguments, you would have presented them. But unfortunately, there appear to be one or two people who lack the intellectual integrity to delve any deeper than do you. Sad.

So what are they going to do shot people that are trying to survive?

This makes me want to leave the country, sooner.

Yeah, they are offering no aid at all, except for all the aid they are offering.
I'm not sure what people expect out of the US military, they can't exactly wave a magic wand and turn the place into paradise. This was a country, after all, that had little infrastructure to begin with. Knock down a few hundred bulidings down and you have real problems. I don't think people are really grasping the scope of the devastation there and the logistics of getting aid to those in need. The military is doing all it can, I'm sure, as are thousands of volunteers. Just because someone is there to photograph something does not make it a photo-op, they would be handing out food and water regardless.

Let me try to consolidate my criticism here instead of spread out in numerous responses.

JonRaymond -
U.S. Troops Bring Guns, Occupation, Martial Law to Haiti - Create Security Problems - Offer no Aid"

Yes, in the title we see the phrase "offer no aid." But you see, if you were paying attention you'd know that this refers to the troops who landed at the Haiti Presidential Palace (I guess regular air strips are too crass for them). Those troops (as seen in the news video and narrated by the news man) offer no aid - none - Nada - zip - zilch - not a band aid. In fact they deny a mother access to see her own child in a hospital. What's that all about?
----------------------------

The problem is I DID pay attention to the video and your title is still wrong and misleading and thus rather dishonest. Your title is misleading regardless of whatever article or video it is linked to. You are playing a game Fox News has been playing for quite some time by exaggerating.

Your title states that all this is directed to Haiti as a whole giving the impression of an absolute. The video in question was a narrow glimpse of the overall situation in one particular area.

Your title states US Troops as though the majority of them if not all are only bringing guns and martial law and no aid. The original title of the video was "Mix Welcome for US Troops" which you took it upon yourself ala Fox News to stretch into the above title lambasting all the troops involved in Haiti. The video was about the 82nd Airborne in one part of Haiti. The reporter said "these" (not all) soldiers are not providing aid but are providing security yet your title implies that to all US Troops in Haiti.

You defend your actions by saying the rules here are: "We are supposed to give our own personal view on the story, not just copy and paste." True but a certain amount of common sense and integrity should come into play here. This is not a license to go off the deep end and invent any title you feel like adding for the sake of Yellow Journalism .

Al Gore was not part of the 'climategate scam' as you call it. BTW, were the hacking criminals ever caught? Talk about being uninformed and lisitening to what the media spoonfeeds you. And as far as this is concerned, US aid was slow to come, and they are already talking about giving up the search effort as their search for Americans isn't yielding fruit. I can understand the logistical challenges, but again, it is the ensuing rebuilding that I will be watching more closely. I think people are naive if they think it will be all above board and without any strings attached. The US government is notorious for fomenting coups and placing in "friendly" governments to serve their agenda.They already did it in Haiti, and people remember. And that does not even begin to address the corporations chomping at the bit to get in to more than likely privitize their water supply and food system.

They want to be a american state they know that there country was a hell hole long before the quake they would be way better off if we did stay and save them.Why do so many people hate the greatest country in the world?

Get them off that damn island. The Dominican Republic is beautiful, yet Haiti is a shithole. Money should not be wasted on fixing the infrastructure but instead medical aid and transportation. A hurricane will likely wreck that place soon enough.

Cargo ships should load up with the couple million of them, bring them to China and Africa and drop them off.

Then build a huge electric fence around Haiti's side, replant the trees they cut (only two percent of their trees are left, creating agriculture, watershed and flood issues.)

Extract the DNA from some raptor fossils and put it into ostrich eggs or some shit. And Make this bitch the REAL JURASSIC PARK.

(anyone who doesn't want to leave can fight the raptors.)

Wyclef said 400,00 more dieing he is WRIGHT!

20,000 a day die from lack of medical care now day 9.

Wow, look at all the Pentagon photo op roaches crawl out from under their rocks when you shine the light of truth on them. I don't think I've ever seen this much propaganda in one place before. So who are we trying to convince here, and why is it necessary to do so?

You think people actually might doubt the U.S. military agenda?

Furthermore, I urge everyone to vote this story down. Not because it shines a black light on the US Military, not because it is critical to US policy in Haiti, but because it is a blatant example of what a true alternative news source should be against - Yellow Journalism.

"Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers."

This is one of the major criticisms against the mass media of Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc...

Should Current be a haven for such practices? I thought Current was suppose to be above the mass media that so many people here criticize.

The original title was - "Mixed Welcome for US Troops"

This would be different if this article was solely an opinion piece from JonRaymond but by attaching his title to an actual news story he falls into the pitfall of Yellow Journalism but in his case, he dove headfirst willingly.

When you post a link to an actual news item using such Yellow Journalistic titles you are deliberately manipulating people's perspectives - especially on this site where time after time many people have only looked at the title before giving their opinion which is often in error because the actual article is nothing like they perceive it to be.

This title is not only a blatant example of Yellow Journalism it's also a blatant lie being used to fuel an agenda of a personal vendetta against the US Military.

The fact that such news items with Yellow Journalistic titles make it in the top ranks should be an embarrassment to this site. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Current has practically stopped airing news items on TV anymore. The TV execs must have just got tired of feeling embarrassed when they had to air such YJ items just because those YJ items were popular with one-line commenting shallow-witted numbskulls too lazy to check the source material.

Keep in mind the original title to the CNN story is

"Mixed Welcome for US Troops"

Now how did that title go from that to -

"U.S. Troops Bring Guns, Occupation, Martial Law to Haiti - Create Security Problems - Offer no Aid"??????????????

Hello, Fox News? And why does Current not vet such things? Is Yellow Journalism acceptable to this alternative news source site? I thought the idea was that we were suppose to be better not worse than the mass media.

JonRaymond, I'm just going come out and ask - are you any better than Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck who have also despicably used this tragedy to launch embittered attacks for their own agenda against Obama and liberals? Like them you seem to be using this tragedy to further your own embittered agenda against the US Military which hurt you in some way years ago. I don't throw Pat Robertson or Danny Glover in this mix because despite their statements they have contributed and have urged others to do so - something Beck, Limbaugh, and yourself have not.

You have been extremely negative since this tragedy has begun. You want to throw out baseless accusations (like your laughable theory that the gangs were GIs in disguise) or stretched truths or Yellow Journalistic titles but you offer nothing else. Have you even made any kind of donation or contribution? Are you just a onetrick pony who can only scream "THE US MILITARY IS BAAAADDD!!!"

And worse, call me a tinfoil hat wearer, but people like you sometimes seem to have ulterior motives that may be contrary to what they appear to be. Purveyors of disinformation can wear sheep skins to fool the flock. But anyway whether it is intentional or unintentional, people like you tend to do more harm than good to their own cause by going so over the top that legitimate criticism can be tainted by association and thus dismissed.

After viewing a multitude of reports on "chaos" and "lawlessness" I fail to see how sending "eight or nine helicopters" to a country in "turmoil" is considered a display of "martial law" The inaccuracies in this report are not only glaring but pure speculation and a demonstration of naivety. Providing military support to a country that is enduring such a tragedy is a normal course of action for any military and I severely doubt that the U.S. is the only country whose armed forces are involved. Furthermore, the relief response has been incredible considering that Haiti has about 49 hospitals, many of which were damaged, and hundreds of thousands of people injured and tens of thousand dead. I would imagine that retaining appropriate hospital conditions would be near impossible let alone supplying the necessary aid for everyone in the span of a week. The focus should be on saving and preserving life, which is why the military is there in the first place, not nitpicking over foreign policy and speculating whether or not the the U.S. is now going to take over the country.

Unfortunately, the reputation of the USA has dropped sharply since Bush, Jr. stole the presidency in 2001 (although, Al Gore did receive the bigger consolation prize w/ the Climategate scam), and our reputation has only been further diminished by the current administration that says the right thing and then does the wrong thing. Can you blame anyone abroad for having a sense of fear and trepidation every time they see battleships offshore that read "Made in the USA?" Honestly, many people in the USA are beginning to fear their own government, and if you haven't realized that yet, you have not been keeping your ear to the ground.

wow, this guy literaly believes everything that cnn spoon feeds him!!!! grow-up Jon, b/c what you are saying in essence is that we shouldn't be there at all right? If that were the case we would be reading your other CNN film clip intro bashing the military for not even caring, and where's the love and compassion, well, Jon, maybe get your news from another source because our minds are like a parachute.....they only work when they are open....