18634: charles: another point of view (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: pgcharles@optonline.net

I received the note below from a friend. I am posting it here with his permission.

========================================================


Pierre Jean wrote:

    So tell me, tou dwat, when all is said and done, how
    would you have spent that $15 million that will be
    going to the US never to come back into the Haitian
    system? Was that the best way to manage the "security"
    of the president? Does that mean that no Haitian
    President can be protected by his own kind? That is
    what you seem to imply. And that's a hell of a
    statement coming from a President who railed against
    American imperialism and the long reach of the
    American miltary complex for years and years from the
    top of his pulpit at St Jean Bosco.


Ahh Philippe,

This echoes our conversation from Friday.  Ariside's FIRST mistake, after disbanding the Army (can't blame him for being scared of THAT beast) was to start putting local thugs on his payroll to circumvent another Coup attempt.  As you astutely observed, this was very short-sighted and paranoid thinking.  A payroll is a payroll, and if you are a young thug for hire living in Cite Soleil, you go to the highest bidder.  (How could one ever become President in Haiti without giving in to paranoid thoughts?)

His second mistake, made to cover the first one, was to start hiring out American private "security", (soldiers of fortune) for additional protection.  How many in those ranks of expensive security forces may be aligned with clandestine US Govt/CIA/LABATWA plans??????

You know they always have to have troops on the ground to orchestrate their plans.  The closer to the source the better.   Never mind the impropriety of spending such vast sums while schools and hospitals, roads and jobs go unattended in a starving country cut off from the world.

Even if our friend "Pierre Jean" is indeed spinning for someone in one way or another (is it me, or did he just suddenly appear out of nowhere?) we can still learn a lot from his "insights".  Knowing the agenda is half the battle.  Unfortunately in this instance, there is  a lot of truth mixed in with the Anti-Aristide progaganda.  Thanks to Aristide's mistakes, they have so much more to work with now then they did the first time, (Pere Lebrun and mental instability).

The real miracle here is that Titid still has what's left of his support from the population.
"Nou led, nou la" should be the new slogan for democracy in Haiti for the moment.

-******

ps - they DO seem to be backpedalling for the moment, as elections here draw near.  Heard a rumor direct from Haiti this morning that Bush sent some troops to Gonaives, and made some "public" statement about supporting Aristide as the democratically elected candidate.  Hasn't shown up on the list yet though.