Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Antiwar.com Gives Bush Benefit of the Doubt on Haiti

By Mark Hand

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Posted 03/03 | Add a Comment

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  1. This is a very perceptive piece. 

    We must also ask how the “rebel groups” or gangs in Haiti were being armed, how they received funds, and obtained intelligence, how some of the leaders of the death squads slipped back into the country.

    Given the fact the US authorities have lied before regarding Iraq’s possession of WMD (Bush administration), and El Shifa pharmaceutical factory (Clinton Administration), to give just two examples, it is not beyond their capability to lie again about Aristide’s “resignation.” The propensity to lie is certainly there among the powerful, both in this country and elsewhere.

    There is a documented history of arranging coups and counter-coups by US intelligence and their local favorities.  So Aristide’s charges that he was in fact kidnapped should be taken seriously and investigated, rather than dismissed.  While I am no admirer of Aristide, his words are more likely to be true than that of Mr. Powell and company.  If he resigned, as suggested by Mr. Powell, why did n’t Aristide make speech on Haiti TV saying so and then formal handing over power to the chief justice of the sumpreme court.  (Making a speech on national TV is often the standard practise among dictators surrending before a popular movement.)

    Posted by Abu Spinoza from  on  03/03  at  01:30 PM

  2. I noticed this too - libertarians seem to have, pretty much across the board, accepted the press’ version of events, claims that the elections were so fradulent and unfair as to be illegit, etc.  Not a very searching response.

    Posted by buermann from  on  03/03  at  03:24 PM

  3. Thanks, (Joshua) Buermann for the great analysis of what’s going on in Haiti. Abu, you raise some good questions that I wish our mainstream media would be answering. But, alas, there are more important things like Kerry’s coronation and who will make the final cut in American Idol for them to be providing cutting edge analysis about. Trying to get the truth about Aristide’s ouster this past week reminds me of the first couple weeks of the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year when we couldn’t find the truth in the broadcast media, and the print media was only slightly better. At that time—and now with the coup in Haiti—we witnessed the power of the Internet in allowing the masses to bypass the establishment media in search of the real story. Also, in reference to Abu saying, “While I am no admirer of Aristide ...”, I wouldn’t feel the need to use this qualifier. Given the hand Haiti’s been dealt by the U.S. and the OAS, I don’t think there’s a whole lot for which Aristide needs to apologize. As Mickey Z. touches on in his article “New Word Order” on this site, the world’s news media took the bait (provided by several sources) and saw to it that Aristide’s image should not be one of a democratically elected president of an impoverished nation, but one of a monstrous dictator whose time had run out, even though he still had two years left in his term.

    Posted by Mark Hand from  on  03/03  at  04:07 PM

  4. Many thanks to Mark Hand for writing this piece.  Excellent analysis, and something that begged to be posted; here’s hoping it gets wide circulation. Yes, I wouldn’t “qualify” either as per Mark’s words to Abu above.  And as far as dealing with the question of mendacity coming from this one or that one...why don’t we have our starting point --always-- from here on out that Powell (and the likes of Powell) is not telling the truth?  I mean, in this case and in EVERY case that comes down the pike the one with the proven track record of being disingenous, etc. is Powell...so it’s a bit of a waste of time to sort through the niceties.  With the “Yesterday it was Iraq, today it’s Haiti and tomorrow it’ll be Venezuela” syndrome in full force as Kerry and Bush offer up our sole options for the citizenry...I don’t think we have time for such nonsense.  Our starting point should be what we’re going to do about these High Crimes before Kerry or Bush --one way or the other-- lead us toward more of the same in the coming months, years. From here on out, I’d like to see all those who know what’s going on on the Left to formulate a new response to those “progressives” who try to engage us in dialogue about distracting niceties, etc.
    Thanks for your ears, Richard Oxman

    Posted by from  on  03/03  at  10:10 PM

  5. I have little to add to what’s mentioned in the comments above, except to reiterate that this is a great, perceptive piece.

    Antiwar.com has been a great resource through the Iraq mess, but it’s clearly dropped the ball on Haiti - probably, as Mark claims, because the narrative of what’s been happening there just isn’t on the ideological radar of the people behind the site (Raimondo & Garris, especially).

    Posted by Bill from  on  03/04  at  06:09 PM

  6. RE Abu’s comments, in some ways, it would be a failure on the part of the U.S. if Marines actually had to threaten Aristide to leave. That leaves much more of a trail than merely creating the conditions and letting Aristide quit.

    Posted by micah holmquist from  on  03/05  at  10:47 AM

    7. Next entry: New Word Order

    Previous entry: Burn the Maps and Get Lost in the Territory

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