Posted on 01/15/2010 8:08:13 AM PST by Recovering_Democrat
When an earthquake ravages a country as poor and urbanized as Haiti, it produces the cruelest kind of synergy, as poverty breeds cramped living quarters that are left even more vulnerable by substandard construction work.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
This otta be a great ratings bonanza for "O"
And oh, by the way, all negative stories that were beginning to boil in the public eye can now be brushed aside and not reported, hidden and banished to the nether lands of the media.
But the "world" knows who's got the big shoulders. While the "world" runs its collective mouth denigrating America the "bully", we, without asking for any thank you, give away our wealth and human resources freely, without question.
As it should be and always has been, the "world" dials 911, we always answer.
Unless you're calling Bill Clinton from Rwanda. But I digress, nice to see Bill leading the charge....
It is nonsensical to dismissively lump the cost of this enormous operation under the umbrella of “sunk costs”. It will cost us tremendously to deploy these troops elsewhere. This is not the purpose of our military. As someone said earlier, what are our UN dues getting us? They should be the agency overseeing any humanitarian efforts.
What is “humanitarian” about saddling as yet unborn Americans with yet more debt, which will have a direct and palpable effect on their lives?
He isn’t “stuck on stupid”.
Not by any means.
His concerns are legitimate.
The rest of Haiti is largely unaffected, and has police and military units. Why aren't any of them being brought in?
The answer is that they are afraid of the people due to years of corrupt negligence and abuse by the ruling classes there.
The UN had 9,000 uniformed personnel in Haiti before the earthquake. Clinton sent 20,000 US troops to restore Aristide in 1994. IMO 10,000 is not a huge number.
Unfortunately, the fundamental problems in Haiti may be insurmountable.
I did not mean to call Recovering_Democrat stupid. We are all Legitimately concerned. When Dims say our military is streched and we still find troops to send into situations like these, then when isn’t our military over streched?
All of the money resources and energy we spend on people in dire situations is cause of concern, specially when our Dum@$$ in chief is running the game. Afghanistan is just as a dire situation as the earthquake in Haiti, his response should have been as quick if not quicker than Haiti, there is no question about that.
I think I speak for everyone reading posts that there is no need to apologize...
I think I speak for everyone reading posts when I say that there is no need to apologize...
Our troops should not be sent to Haiti. They should be proecting our unprotected borders. Next thing - Washington will start importing Haitian thugs to this country?
Political leadership has broken down in Haiti and anarchy, along with violence and looting, is spreading. This is one situation that needs not only our humanitarian aid, but our military boots on the ground. It’s a bad situation and I hope not a thankless one in world opinion. Not that world opinion governs how I view things. But I also hope that having to enter the fray in Haiti does not give the president other ideas... nor use this as a practice ground for dealing with our citizens. I don’t trust the man.
Haiti is our neighbor and has just suffered a huge natural disaster. The US is known and characterized by its compassion. Take that away and then what makes it special to be an American? I WANT my tax dollars to be spent in this situation.
Yes.
In saner times our Department of Defense was more accurately called the War Department, which is what our soldiers should be trained for exclusively.
If we are training them to also deliver humantarian aid in times of crisis throughout the world, then fine. But let us make that clear to them when they are recruited. Let’s also withdraw from the UN and severely curtail the monetary “aid” we send to other countries, in order to finance our world nursemaid program.
We only enable these corrupt countries to not build up sufficient infrastructure and support networks by providing an on-call safety net via our magnificent, misused military.
does this mean that supplies will be parachuted in?
Agree
“I WANT my tax dollars to be spent in this situation.”
####
Too bad we can’t vote, because I don’t.
Nor do I want my unborn grandkids saddled with an already historically off-the-charts debt, fueled by this kind of unquestioned expenditure. Don’t we already provide enough to the rest of the world? If we want to be able to afford these kind of crisis responses let’s pull in our horns elsewhere: the UN, and the “aid” we already provide as a matter of pure guilt and reflex.
No I prefer personal charity, donating regularly to Catholic charities which ALREADY have a long established humitarian presence in Haiti and elsewhere. My wife and I have already discussed the additional contribution we will make at Mass this weekend for the planned second collection exclusively for Haiti.
Earthquake Katrina.
“I WANT my tax dollars to be spent in this situation.”
And you shall get your wish, along with your kid’s tax dollars.
Fox News today:
U.S. Preparing for Potential New Wave of Haitians Fleeing North
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/14/preparing-potential-new-wave-haitians-fleeing-north/
Obama is already an advocate of greater Haitian immigration, this is all the excuse they need.
http://www.stoptheaclu.com/2008/07/29/obama-wants-more-haitians-in-america/
“He also said there should be greater equity across the board for immigrants as well, pointing out that “it’s much harder for Haitians to immigrate, despite similar circumstances in need” as other groups that have been admitted legally.”
Last night CBS stated that there are 850,000 Haitians living in the USA now. I’m sure every one of them would like to bring in all their relatives. Every time there is a storm in that area, we take in ‘temporary’ refugees, they never leave.
Oct. 2008
“Two weeks ago, the Bush administration announced it would extend temporary protected status to an estimated 300,000 Honduran, Nicaraguan and Salvadoran nationals who have been allowed to stay for years after natural disasters struck their countries.
It was granted to Hondurans and Nicaraguans after Hurricane Mitch hit in 1998 and to Salvadorans after a series of earthquakes in 2001.
While immigrant advocates argue it’s unfair to deny Haiti the same benefit afforded those countries, opponents say the fact that the immigrants from those other places are still in the US is proof the system doesn’t work.
“If Bush had ended the TPS for the Central American countries, then we would be in favour of TPS for Haitians,” said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, which advocates reduced immigration. “The reason we don’t is that there’s no ‘T’ in TPS.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/13/usa-haiti
No offense taken, gaucho.
I am not saying we shouldn’t go into Haiti...I AM saying Hussein is awfully quick to do this, whereas he dragged his feet while our people were being shot in Afghanistan.
He pledged $100M of our money without even having sent anyone to assess the situation. He wants to “nation build” in Haiti, but abandon Iraq.
When will Hussein say, “It is about time the Haitian people take responsibility for their own security”?
I guaran-damn-tee you, if Bush43 were doing these things, the Democrats would cry how woefully inadequate the response has been...and the media would be focusing more on the failures in the past 96 hours than the successes.
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