Thursday, February 26, 2004

More Haiti Hijinks!

The NY Post gives Lurch a swift kick in Kerry's Haitian Hooey
February 26, 2004 -- Sen. John Kerry has tried to blame the crisis in Haiti on President Bush, claiming that the administration fostered the instability that led to the uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Nonsense.

Haiti has been a basket case since forever - and the roots of this crisis are directly traceable to the effective abandonment of Haiti by the international community after the United States returned Aristide to power in 1994.

Does that make it Bill Clinton's fault?

Actually, if anyone is responsible for the rebellion that has conquered the north of Haiti and now threatens the capital of Port-au-Prince, it is surely Aristide himself.

In power, this longtime hero of the American left turned out to be inept, corrupt, capricious and brutal; he has ruled through street gangs and police thugs.
If you've missed the leftoids' support for Bertie, check out this outrageous whitewash at CommonDreams.org - "Aristide, a populist, leftist, charismatic leader of the poor." You get the idea although they aren't too much at message control at CommonDreams as their inclusion of this Guardian article reveals:
With no army and only a few thousand poorly trained police, Aristide has relied on armed gangs to sustain his authority. In 2000, he rigged parliamentary elections in favor of his own party, sparking outrage and laying the basis for a broad-based opposition, which has gathered pace and strength in recent months.
A man of the people fer sure!

But back to the Post:
Now one of those same violent street gangs - the "cannibal army" from Gonsalves - has turned against its patron and is leading the rebellion.

As for the conditions that turned so many Haitians against the government, it was Aristide's refusal to hold fair elections that led to the international cutoff in aid, worsening an economy damaged by his mismanagement.

Kerry says that he would threaten to deploy troops to protect Aristide because "this democracy is going to be sustained."

Hmmm. What democracy might that be, Senator?
Indeed. But the first lesson in Third World Dictators 101 is to claim to be a leader of the poor and downtrodden. It gets you a pass for all kinds of abuse as southern Africa, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro have been illustrating for years.
The Bush administration has dealt with the uprising correctly - by pushing for a diplomatic solution together with the Caribbean and international communities.

There might have to be a U.S.-led intervention eventually, to restore order in Haiti and forestall a massive exodus to Florida.

But Aristide does not deserve American protection, and the bloodshed in Haiti is not President Bush's fault - whatever candidate Kerry says.
John Kerry is the guy who was famously enamored of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Is there a leftist thug anywhere that he doesn't like? Just wondering.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention one other group that never met a leftist thug they didn't like - Black U.S. Lawmakers Try to Help Haiti. Of course, to the AP, "black lawmakers" means the race pimps in the Congressional Black Caucus and their cronies.
The last time democracy fell apart in Haiti, black Democrats launched a very public campaign to get the Clinton administration to return Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.

As Aristide's rule again nears collapse, the same players are stepping up pressure again — only now it's on the Bush administration. And they are using different tactics. Rather than sending protesters into the streets, they're buttonholing top officials and showing up at President Bush (news - web sites)'s doorstep on short notice to urge that democratic rule be preserved in Haiti.

"This is an urgent moment calling for urgent action," Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Wednesday after he notified Bush's top aides that members of the Congressional Black Caucus would pay an impromptu visit to the White House.
Quick, pull down the shades and turn off the TV!

But isn't the president doing the multilateral thing all these leftoids love?
The president said he supports creation of an international security presence in Haiti to maintain order if a political settlement is reached.
...
American blacks contend that policy smacks of racism. They say the United States is unwilling to risk sending soldiers into the chaotic Caribbean nation, the Western Hemisphere's poorest, because its people are of African descent.

When Bush's words reached Jesse Jackson in Libya on Wednesday, he began dialing up members of Congress and administration officials to lash out.

"It is clear that the right wing in this country does not support that democracy," Jackson said in a telephone interview. "(Bush) is, in fact, supporting overthrow of this government in this hemisphere."
Sounds like a double standard to me! Now they want immediate unilateral action. And it's nice the way Jesse can ferret out "democracies" that everyone else misses.

But I'm curious. Aside from a common leftoid persuasion, why do they love this guy so much? Could some cash be involved?