More US troops, UN peacekeepers expected for Haiti

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

Thousands of U.S. Marines were expected off the shore of this crumbled capital city Monday to help relief organizations get supplies to Haitian earthquake survivors who questioned foreigners, soldiers and God about aid yet to arrive.

The troop increase and an expected request to the U.N. for more peacekeepers were coming a day after sporadic violence and looting in Port-au-Prince underscored how an uptick in water and food deliveries still fell far short of overwhelming demand.

"We don't need military aid. What we need is food and shelter," one young man yelled at U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during his visit to the city Sunday. "We are dying," a woman told him, explaining she and her five children didn't have any food.

(snip)
Some 2,000 Marines also were to arrive off Haiti on Monday, Keen said, reinforcing 1,000 U.S. troops on the ground. Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, was expected to visit the country and meet with President Rene Preval. Also Monday, U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said he planned to ask the Security Council to temporarily increase the U.N.'s force. There are currently about 7,000 U.N. military peacekeepers and 2,100 international police in Haiti.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_earthquake

[Proletariatprincess]

1. Cuba sends doctors and medical personel....

the USA sends Marines. Then the US brags about it's generosity. What is the agenda here? I can't believe it is purely humanitarian.

[vadawg]

2. yeah i guess all the rescue guys sent from the states dont count

neither the airlift capacity or specialists to get the airfield and seaport open, you do realise that within hours of the quake people were leaving the states to go help dont you... and off course its only the US that could have political reasons for helping everyone else is just so much more humanitarian.....

[Peace Patriot]

4. I have to agree. I'm not fond of the US military, even less of the US gov't which has

destroyed Haitian democracy, time and again, and is singularly responsible for Haiti having no decent government now (including, f.i., NO building codes). I also have no illusions about Pentagon long term intentions in Haiti (to occupy the country and prop up its US puppet government for purposes of corporate exploitation, protecting the rich (99% of the land in Haiti is owned by 1% of the people; prevailing wage $2/day), and "Southern Command" war games (and war)). But it appears to me that, in this HUMONGOUS disaster, the US military has been doing the macro-infrastructure tasks that were absolutely essential to getting any aid in at all, ever. The airport. The harbor. Getting the USS Carl Vinson there (19 helicopters, fuel, potable water generation from sea water). The price may be permanent US military occupation of Haiti--a hundred miles off Cuba's coast, and one of a number of war assets the Pentagon is assembling for its Venezuela war plan--but that price cannot be helped.

At least a hundred thousand people are dead. Tens of thousands are injured. 2-3 million people are without food, water, hospitals (except for temporary hospitals set up by the 400 Cuban doctors who were already in Haiti staffing community medical clinics--every hospital in Port-au-Prince collapsed), no sewage system, no electricity, no communications, little transportation or fuel, massive damage to roads/bridges, no security and no shelter. 2-3 million people! Their city is in utter ruins. And besides all this, most of them are extremely poor. They have no resources at all. No food supplies. (Most Haitians lived from meal to meal, before the earthquake.) No money. No resources whatsoever. Somebody has to re-create the entire city--probably some kind of tent city--which will probably be a US-occupied zone for years--while the US State Department creates a corporate paradise ("free trade for the rich") out of the ruins.

A military occupation is probably needed--truly. I hope it's multinational. There are 7,000 to 9,000 UN peacekeepers in Haiti, from 17 countries, who were there before and are helping now, under Brazilian command. But the US gov't and the Pentagon always have ulterior motives, and they will likely muscle command away from Brazil.

I have nothing but the greatest admiration, respect, praise and gratitude for ALL helpers on the ground, on the sea and in the air, coming to the aid of Haitians right now. And I have held off any criticism of anybody because the situation is so dire and because I know that there are multitudes of heroes in the US and other militaries, in the international aid community and among Haitians themselves, who need our support right now. They have the most difficult of tasks imaginable. For the next few days, all we should be doing is praying and sending money. There is nothing we can do about political battles or long term US intentions. (Our corporate rulers don't give a crap what we think anyway.) I want this massive effort to save Haitian lives to succeed.

I can hope that it will be an excellent example of international cooperation and maybe even point the world--and our government in particular--in a positive direction, away from war and exploitation of the poor. That's a positive vision we can try to hold. But right now, millions of lives are at grave risk and that is all that really matters over the next week or so.

[hack89]

3. The US military has more experience with disaster relief on a large scale

than another large organization in the world - even the UN is dependent on US military logistics for large disasters. Go back and look at the Indian Ocean tsunami or the Pakistani earthquakes. The reason we send Marines is because of their logistic capabilities - helicopters, ships, mobile hospitals, water desalination equipment, mobile pier facilities. The simple fact is that all the equipment needed to invade another country is perfectly suited for disaster relief.