21248: Hess: Re: 21334: Morrell: Haiti Democracy Project and Group of 184 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: DougRHess@aol.com

James Morrell wrote:

"There is a legitimate worry that if the Latortue administration stumbles, we
could end up with something far worse.  That does not mean a blank check for
the Latortue administration, far from it."

It's odd to hear Morrell make this argument, considering that I suspect he
would not have bought this argument: "There is a legitimate worry that if the
Aristide administration stumbles, we could end up with something far worse.
That does not mean a blank check for the Aristide administration, far from it."

Is there any doubt that had the US not played such a nasty game against
Aristide that we would have seen something much better in Haiti under Aristide? As
the letter from the Church World Service to Powell notes: there was more at
stake in Haiti than the bickering going on between equally underdeveloped and
unrepresentative organizations in the formal political institutions of a very
weak state.

Also, why do articles on death squad leaders in the rebellion so-often only
merit a score of "2" on the HDP website's rating scale while articles about
Aristide's human rights abuses so-often merit a "5" (the highest rating)? Are
some victims more worthy than others?

Doug Hess
Ph.D. Student,
School of Public Policy & Administration,
George Washington University

Home address:
2114 N St., NW Apt. 23
Washington, DC 20037
202-955-5869
(cell 202-276-4807)