A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
When the U.S. sent thousands of troops into Port au Prince airport, earthquake relief was clearly not the primary mission. Otherwise, ships and whole military units would not have arrived with only supplies for themselves.
US Military's Haiti "Relief" Ops A Rehearsal For Troop Deployments in Latin America
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“U.S. naval units sailed into Haitian waters without bothering to load up with food, water and medicine at the nearby U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”
The American commandeering of the airport at Port au Prince and de facto seizure of sovereignty over Haiti looked exactly like an invasion and occupation – except that Haiti had already been invaded in 2004 by the U.S., which then turned over occupational duties to its servants in the United Nations. To speak of a U.S. “invasion” of Haiti is getting a little bit redundant. The Americans never left, and they and their flunkies walk all over Haiti like an old rug.
Clearly, however, the U.S. was not on an earthquake rescue mission. U.S. naval units sailed into Haitian waters without bothering to load up with food, water and medicine at the nearby U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. What kind of “relief” mission was this, in which the rescuer comes empty-handed? Thousands of paratroopers were flown in from Fort Bragg, North Carolina – and then sat at the Port au Prince airport for several days, claiming not to have transportation into town. They could have walked! The city is just beyond the airport fence and downtown and the port are only a couple of miles away. A BBC reporter noted that, several days after the paratroopers landed, they sent small relief missions to outlying areas. Meanwhile, literally right down the street was the vast shantytown of Cite Soliel. But the Americans didn’t go there.
The United States military, except for its special operations units, is the “heaviest” fighting force in the world. That means, the Americans require more logistical support – more pounds of equipment, more fresh food, more support personnel for every grunt with a gun – than any military on the planet. When the U.S. decided to airlift thousands of troops into Port au Prince, commanders knew the logistical needs of that force, alone, would overwhelm the airport’s capacity, leaving little room for actual relief supplies. The Americans knew they would be creating a bottleneck that would become an impediment to relief efforts by the rest of the world. But they hogged the air and runways, anyway. What was the purpose?
“The Americans knew that they would be creating a bottleneck that would become an impediment to relief efforts by the rest of the world.”
The explanation is quite simple. For the Americans, the operation was not primarily a rescue mission. Often, they carried only supplies for themselves. I don't buy into speculation that the Americans were attempting to worsen the Haitian situation through deliberate delays, in order to justify taking over the country. It was clear from the first day that the earthquake was a visitation from hell that would create more than enough drama than the U.S. would ever need – and besides, the Americans and their minions were already in charge of Haiti. But the Americans' actions make perfect sense when understood as an air and naval exercise to test the capabilities of the U.S. Southern Command to move its own men and machines from one place to another, quickly. The Southern Command's 4th Fleet was just taken out of mothballs last year, and has been staging exercises in the Caribbean to threaten Venezuela. The U.S. has just opened 7 new bases in Colombia, and would be anxious to test its ability to support them with quick infusions of large units of troops and equipment. The Haiti earthquake was a good excuse. But the mission was not about them.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
Comments
Devil in a Red, White and Blue Dress
Ford: "The Haiti earthquake was a good excuse."
Yes indeed it was, which is why intelligent and inquiring minds want to know if it was manufactured via HAARP or common ground distrubances, including mining and extraction.
What is striking (I can't and won't say disappointing) is that Obummer as the chief tool and spokesman for the kleptocracy and MIC in ramping up conflict in Latin America at a pace GWB never did. It's as if both Obummer and the other clown called President, GWB, are WWF wrestling partners and Obummer just got a hand slap from Bush to jump into the ring.
The Americans are not interested in aid to Haiti, f**k the Haitians. They are interested in military beachheads, and the "humanitarian interventionists "good cops" are primed to seize the opportunity. Heres another take on what the US military is up to in Haiti:
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/01/29/aid-groups-frustrated-by-us-militarys-role-in-haiti-effort/
Excerpt:
"There is already an increasingly large international military effort in Haiti, including over 15,000 American troops, it seems unthinkable that over two weeks after the devestating earthquake the Haitian public will have to wait for food because the United Nations has decided that tens of thousands of soldiers, many of them combat troops, are insufficient for the small island nation.
But aid groups have noted that the US troops seem more interested in marching through the streets looking for clashes than providing the crowd control that the UN claims it needs. Given this, it seems that it could be quite some time before the UN is going to feel comfortable enough to ramp up its food distribution, and aid groups are going to have to more and more look for ways to work around the “official” effort."
I view the US ramping up of militarism in the Western Hemisphere in the same vein as all of the other military posturing. I just read at antiwar.com that Her Majesty, Hillary Clinton (you know, the one who would have been a "better" President than Obummer) has continued her vitriolic and insane tone by threatening China over it's refusal to join in Iran sanctions.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/01/29/clinton-threatens-china-with-isolation-over-iran-sanctions/
Excerpt:
"In a long diatribe against both Iran and China, Clinton declared that it was time to “move away from the engagement track” and apply more sanctions against Iran. She warned that China would face diplomatic isolation and disruptions to its energy supply.
Hillary Clinton, what a crazy bitch! "Diplomatic isolation" of the strongest capitalist engine on the planet. "Diplomatic isolation" of the nation keeping us financially afloat. The hubris says psychopathic behavior. The US State Dept. and military is not trying to help the Haitains, what we are witnessing, real time, is the vaunted "Liberal (failed states) Interventionism" in operation. This is the "kindler and gentler" side of US hegemony, disaster capitalism, and racial superiority, American Exceptionalism writ large. The US military is trying to encircle it's "enemies" in Latin America in the same vein it's trying to encircle Russia, China, and Iran. This crazed, deranged policy virtually assures AN EVEN LARGER MORE DISASTROUS war somewhere, somehow, notwithstanding the 2 or 3 or 4 wars we are already fighting AND LOSING. These pscyopathic bastards are getting ready to double down on their bets. Sadly, the Amerikkans won't know what hits them.
Any astute reading of these manical actions leads to only one conclusion. We are nearing the end of the road in the experiment called the United States of America (actually the US Supt. Ct. sealed it's fate last week) and Western Empire. Alternatively, we may be nearing the end of the world as we know it itself. It's clear, in dissecting Amerikkan foreign policy, that America is on it's last legs. A simple review and assessment of the evidence-- from the insane threats and posturing,-- suggests the collapse of the US or WW4 will come "like a thief in the night."
All you "Left Behind" enthusiasts might get your delusional theories tested sooner than you want.
Looky here looky here...
You might be right Glen. It seems like the Neo-Thug, Bush leftovers in the Obama administration are getting antsy about Obama's perceived neglect of Latin America:
Coming clash in the Americas
http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/29/coming_clash_in_the_ame...
Here you have them talking up a little shock doctrine:
Thinking Big In Haiti
http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/14/thinking_big_in_haiti
Here, you have them clowning the Chavez governments earth-quake weapon theory:
The evil genius of the U.S. plan to destroy Haiti [UPDATED]
http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/26/the_evil_genius_of_the...
I'll end this by leaving you guys a treat. This is the most breathtaking documentary that I've seen in a long time, and I would urge everyone to pass this along to every Black person you know!
MAAFA 21 (Full Version)
HTTP://WWW.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeNMaOWelUc
Don't kill the messenger, you can learn a lot when the left and right are at each others throats. The Doc is over 2hrs long but watch the whole thing and then pass it along!
Haiti's Earthquake: Natural
Haiti's Earthquake: Natural or Engineered? Stephen Lendman's 1/29 dissidentvoice.org article of the same name offers similar points about possibility that man-made events led to earthquake in Haiti and in other locales.
Lendman uncovers another shocker at mathaba.net where he reports how Israel's medical aid team in Haiti are stealing body parts. Check out the 1/26 article "Focus on Israel: Harvesting Haitian Organs."