23635: (reply) Anonymous: Re: 23632: (reply) JGWilli1 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Again anonymous please.

I too am a "member of the rest of the world" however I believe that the US
has a legitimate interest in the well being of Haiti and Haitians (if only
to avoid floods of boatpeople on its shores).
Haiti's two major qualities (for selection as a nation rebuilding site) are:
1.) It is a relatively small problem - pretty homogenous population of 8
million generally peace loving people. How can you hope to fix the problems
of the rest of the world if you cannot even fix Haiti's.
2.) Its proximity to the world richest and most powerful state.
I cannot conceive the US permitting foreign involvement with which it was
not itself largely associated.
Historically foreign occupation has tended to be a poor deal for its hosts.
However, as these things went and taking the period into account, the US
occupation (1915-34) was not such a bad deal for Haiti. In the intervening
seventy years attitudes have changed and it  is reasonable to hope that a US
backed UN occupation would be more beneficial than the present benign
neglect.
Haiti's poverty is of course its major protection against foreign state
greed though not against foreign individual greed.

Anonymous