Except for the Green Berets, who have already moved out to provincial cities, most of the U.S. Army invasion force still sits in downtown Port-au-Prince. The Herbies remain in charge almost everywhere else. The U.S. Army has a methodical mind-set: first set up a base, and then go kick ass. I applaud meticulous preparation, but damn, I wish the brass hats would move faster and send foot patrols into the slums. Too many Haitias, high on their first puff of democracy, will be killed or hurt while the U.S. military gets its tent pegs lined up.
There will be casualties, Haitian and American. But in a few months, both statistics will drop off. This place will not be another Somalia. The Herbies are not made of the same steel as the fierce Somali fighters. They are punks who are only good for shooting at civilians, as they did last week; the Herbies will go to ground the minute U.S. forces flex their muscles. The next step should be to demobilize the entire Haitian army, another tool for oppression. Despite what Colin Powell says about them, the generals are not “honorable” men. The army has got to be put down like a mad dog.
When the dust settles here, the real enemy will become boredom. It’s already maddening the troops, who are melting under their Kevlar helmets, flak jackets and full battle kits. Soon politicians in search of a sore to pick will join the let’s-get-out-of-here chorus. If we do get out quickly, then the whole Haitian show will have been in vain, like the Panama and Somali operations. Before the last helicopter lifts off. the Herbies will crawl out of their ratholes and turn on the nightmare again.
Instead, we should stay on, maybe for 10 years or so. America, the richest nation in the world, has a golden chance to rebuild one of the poorest. The job should not be left to the United Nations, which hasn’t gotten much fight. Rebuilding Haiti from the ground up will run into big dough. Keeping our army there probably would cost $1 billion a year. The money is available from unneeded cold-war defense programs such as the F-22 fighter, whose purpose is to achieve air superiority over an enemy that crashed in 1991.
Haiti could become a model for what well-heeled countries can do to help poor ones. Give the U.S. Army the job, and it will rebuild Haiti with the same skill as Corps of Engineers officers used on the Panama Canal–and it will find the new mission it has needed since the Soviet Union died. Anyway, regardless of what the exit plan says, we’re stuck in Haiti for months, at least. While we’re here. we might as well make the most of it.
