#3817: Required Reading : Xavier comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Ednair Xavier <zantray@bellatlantic.net>

Post #3785; US Military, a racist, and Haiti, signed by The Resister.  

Thanks, Bob, for the warning, but we must resist The Resister. I too
read Bob Shacochis' Immaculate Invasion, published by Viking/Penguin
Group. It is a snapshot of American foreign policy vis-a-vis Haiti, and
the significant role of a US Intelligence and Operations Officer NCO
(non-commissioned officer: for the benefit of the Haitians who do not
know, that is someone who traditionally does not go to a military
academy after college, but whose path to the post started at the bottom,
from being a "gendarme".)

I have had my own share of frustration with military missions, that is
part of the job. But if the writer is sincere, and I believe he may be,
then Aristide can use him. The sub-text of violence, scorn, hatred found
in the post would justify Aristide's -if and when he returns to power-
equally virulent hunt for the vestiges of FRAPH, Attaches, priests
killers, VFW (veterans of foreign wars) turned politicos, etc. But
Aristide must beware. He and the new leaders must not take this bait.
Aristide will be blamed by some, nevertheless, for his action in this
matter, and also for his inaction by others. "Des deux côtés le mal est
infini" (Pierre Corneille in Le Cid).

This post is history in the making; it should be printed by all Haitians
who read it, framed and displayed in every Haitian home, on every desk,
as a monument to what it is. A copy should be sent to Aristide, if he
has not yet received it, for his present entourage and future cabinet;
not to forget Creole and French translations forwarded for the newly
elected members of parliament. That is the immediate job of the Dixième
Department. In Haiti, the text should be discussed in meetings, seminars
on modern US foreign policy and the role of a US officer in it, history
and social studies classes. Without realizing it, this man is helping
Aristide and Haiti in ways he could not fathom.

But when I read his last statement calling, in May 2000, for Haiti's
"Recolonization by Whites and rigid Apartheid ... by Whites who are not
afraid to demonstrate why they were the only race to have conquered the
world", I knew he had stayed in Haiti too long. The Haitian scorching
sun allied with Haiti's societal complexities had simply fried the poor
man's brain.