Haitians dying by the thousands as US escalates military intervention

[frog92969]

link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/hait-j22.shtml

By Bill Van Auken
22 January 2010

Thousands of Haitians are dying every day for lack of medical care and supplies, according to a leading humanitarian aid group. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced that it is expanding the US military presence in the country, maintaining Washington’s priority of troops over humanitarian aid.

The US-based medical aid group Partners in Health has warned that as many as 20,000 Haitians may be dying daily due to infections such as gangrene and sepsis that have set in, as the majority of the injured receive no medical care or are treated in facilities that lack the most basic supplies.

“Tens of thousands of earthquake victims need emergency surgical care now!!!,” the organization said in a statement posted on its web site. “The death toll and the incidence of gangrene and other deadly infections will continue to rise unless a massive effort is made to open and staff more operating rooms and to deliver essential equipment and supplies.”

Partners in Health has worked in Haiti for more than 20 years. Its co-founder, Dr. Paul Farmer, is the deputy United Nations envoy to Haiti and a senior professor of public health at Harvard University.

link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/hait-j22.shtml


Just another nail for our all-purpose hammer.
I'm not sure what this projects more of, barbarism or fear.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[frog92969]

2. Care to explain?

:shrug:

[cali]

3. what bullshit.

the wsw churns out propaganda like ben & jerry's churns out ice cream. A massive effort is being made- and not just by the U.S. but by the world community which has never faced a natural disaster like this before.

unrecced

[Violet_Crumble]

34. I think that's a rather mild way of describing that rubbish...

I guess that sort of nonsense appeals to the armchair disaster recovery experts amongst us. I just find it stupid and just a bit ugly. I'm not backwards in coming forwards when it comes to criticising the US, but in this case the pretense that it's a military invasion and that people are being intentionally left to die when they could be saved is just so stupid it defies belief. Do any of these 'critics' stop and think for a second how much worse things would be if the US wasn't involved at all?

[cali]

no, alas what you're seeing is the flip side of American exceptionalism

not as dangerous, but just as mindless.

[amborin]

184. propaganda? read the article about the White House PR campaign on Haiti

[TxRider]

195. You bet.

If they don't output a count of every bottle of water and meal delivered on a minute by minute basis whackos start yelling that they aren't doing anything.

[nadinbrzezinski]

196. Since I am like followign this on the actual NGO's sites

and I have a clue, since I like did this for real... I get it why there is no absolute perfection

Unfortunately those of us who get it are few and far between. Or where did they hide the pixie dust or the teleporters?

[amborin]

212. yeah, well Drs. Without Borders have plenty of criticisms n/t

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

215. If you think they're valid, let's hear 'em.

[amborin]

217. this article:

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/01/19-20

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

222. This article leaves out some info. any responsible reader would surely like to see

Was the flight asked to hold? I mean, I would assume that's what occured, but Common Dreams doesn't let us know. If so, how long was it asked to hold for? Next, why was the pilot unable (or unwilling) to do so? What's struck me most about these DWB reports is that the organization seems to think that it's the only one whose supplies will save lives and that it ought to be priority number one every time it gets near Port-au-Prince. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks they're coming across this way. My guess (since, again, Common Dreams decided not to give us the full story...) is that they were unwilling to hold, threw a hissy fit, and were told that if they needed to land sooner they'd have to go to the Dominican Republic.

[amborin]

226. here, from Lancet and the Manchester Guardian:

more organizations speak out here on the "Chaotic and Confusing Relief Effort":

"John O'Shea , the head of the Irish medical charity, Goal, echoed the criticism. He said the Haitian earthquake was one of the most difficult disasters his agency had dealt with but at least there were no political obstacles to aid deliveries, as in Burma and Sudan.

"That means there is only one thing stopping a massive and prodigious aid effort being rolled out and that is leadership and co-ordination. You have neither in Haiti at the moment," he said.

"You have the US military doing their thing at the airport. You have the United Nations saying we're in control of food distribution but the United Nations is not taking the pro-active role that they should be taking.

"And you have a Haitian president saying he's in charge and the Americans being politically correct and saying they will work under him. This is all going to lead to a situation of utter chaos. I can't get all my trucks in from the Dominican Republic because I have no guarantee that the people driving them are not going to be macheted to death on the way down. I can't let my doctors and nurses out on the street of Port-au-Prince."

Aid agencies say the US and the UN pay lip service to being under the authority of the Haitian government but President René Préval has little real control...."

snip


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/haiti-aid-distribution-confusion-warning

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

231. On the one hand, I'm being told we're placing too much emphasis on security

using this as a cover to flood Haiti with American troops are the expense of people in need, and on the other hand, here you are telling me that more security is needed so that those driving the trucks in from the Dominican Republic will be safe from attack. I've got to ask, which is it? Either way the U.S. is the bad guy.

[TxRider]

249. Not really

The U.S. isn't being tasked with security besides their own forces.

The U.N. is doing the bulk of security, and is shipping in a few more thousand Brazilians to do the job.

It's the U.N. and NGO's complaining about security.

[nadinbrzezinski]

216. And they have been critized by others in the bidness

I know that if I did half of what they pulled as a Red Cross Worker I would have faced severe disciplinary action. Something about doing your job and NOT going public.

In fact, I was considering giving money to them... not now...

By the way... 600 planes landed... 26 brought military assests. The rest brought supplies.

Can you do math?

And they were NOT the only ones who had planes turned to DR... did you hear the screams from anybody else? Try to figure out why.

[amborin]

220. i put great stock in Lancet, which has criticized both the effort and the NGOs:

"
We end up chasing our tails. By the time we have the supplies for the masses it is almost too late. I think if we mobilised for the masses and put less media emphasis many lives could have been saved," he said.

The claim today coincided with a report by the British medical journal the Lancet that accused international aid agencies of corporate preening and self-interest in their response to the magnitude 7.0 tremor which killed up to 200,000 and left more than 2 million homeless.


In a separate criticism of the aid response the Lancet said aid agencies had contributed to the post-earthquake bedlam. "International organisations, national governments and non-governmental organisations are rightly mobilising, but also jostling for position, each claiming that they are doing the best for earthquake survivors," it said in an editorial.""

snip

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/haiti-aid-effort-earthquake

[nadinbrzezinski]

223. Lancet that accused international aid agencies of corporate preening and self-interest

And that applies to DWB... in ways that you are having trouble comprehending for some reason.

The post action report will be amusing.

[amborin]

225. no; and here's an Irish group complaining about US and UN actions:

more organizations speak out here on the "Chaotic and Confusing Relief Effort":

"John O'Shea , the head of the Irish medical charity, Goal, echoed the criticism. He said the Haitian earthquake was one of the most difficult disasters his agency had dealt with but at least there were no political obstacles to aid deliveries, as in Burma and Sudan.

"That means there is only one thing stopping a massive and prodigious aid effort being rolled out and that is leadership and co-ordination. You have neither in Haiti at the moment," he said.

"You have the US military doing their thing at the airport. You have the United Nations saying we're in control of food distribution but the United Nations is not taking the pro-active role that they should be taking.

"And you have a Haitian president saying he's in charge and the Americans being politically correct and saying they will work under him. This is all going to lead to a situation of utter chaos. I can't get all my trucks in from the Dominican Republic because I have no guarantee that the people driving them are not going to be macheted to death on the way down. I can't let my doctors and nurses out on the street of Port-au-Prince."

Aid agencies say the US and the UN pay lip service to being under the authority of the Haitian government but President René Préval has little real control...."

snip


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/haiti-aid-distribution-confusion-warning

[nadinbrzezinski]

229. Read what the Lancet wrote

try to read it carefully.

Some of this is going SEE THEY ARE PLAYING FAVORITES.

Well it happens every time...

And the after action report will be interesting.

Been to a few of these, as I keep telling you guys.

[amborin]

232. i read it; bottom line: the NGOs are competitively jostling for position

[nadinbrzezinski]

235. And you started with DWB... thank you

one reason why they will not get money from me.

Now I also know that in these shindigs this happens about this time in the effort... so somebody has to sit down and lay the law to the children

Here is the problem. I had only oh 30 kids to talk to... whoever has the job has many more, by orders of magnitude. Ranging from the ones that will go... yeah whatever... and do their own thing, to the one and two person efforts.

I really feel sorry for that person... miserable job.

On the bright side DWB got "rewarded" by many people who fell for it.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

213. Agreed.

[tekisui]

4. Kids are disappearing, Haitians are shooting each other. Order

and security are needed.

[EFerrari]

9. Haitians are not "shooting each other". That's a mass media meme.

Witness Amy Goodman, 100 lbs soaking wet, going anywhere she wanted to go and talking to the people there.

But, the part about children disappearing is very true. They are vulnerable and there is no on to look out for them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. There have been SOME shootings and some violence

Amy Goodman notwithstanding.

[tekisui]

12. There have been some Haitians shot,

by local security and there have been many arrests. I know it isn't as bad as it is depicted in the M$M, but there are serious security concerns.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Hell the ICRC had to beat a hasty retreat the other day in one of the slums

and no the Red Cross will not take along armed troops... something about conventions of war and trusting that red cross will protect you.

[EFerrari]

14. I have to respectfully disagree.

There have been incidents but they are isolated ones. We have as many every day in San Francisco.

In fact, the spirit of the Haitian people has been amazing. And so has their ability to organize and help each other when no timely help was forthcoming.

[JuniperLea]

86. Exactly...

The meme that there is rioting and man-made bloodshed is just another instance of freaks trying to make this into another bad thing Obama is doing! All they want is for Obama to fail... they are so into the "yay team" mode of politics that they can't see that if Obama fails, we all fail.

I'm fed up.

There's enough to angry with Obama over without the fucking lies spewed at the expense of human lives.

[nadinbrzezinski]

127. Careful the OP is part of that meme

And Sanjay Gupta is an ass, but a hero... schizophrenic indeed

[JuniperLea]

145. I think I woke up in bizarro world...

And I'm still having the nightmare. I feel like I need to carry around a glass of water to be sure I know what way is up.

[nadinbrzezinski]

155. This thread is part of the problem

chicken littles running around on ugly uncle SAM.

I used to hear these things from the lefties in Mexico... no, these guys don't know what is a lefty, but it is the same Yankee go home mentality.

I have been following like the real news from the real people on the ground doing the work... and it contradicts pretty much all of this.

[Fla Dem]

26. Agree. The prisons collapsed along with all the other buildings.

Many hard core criminals escaped, killing whatever guards were not already killed in the quake. They took the weapons from the prisons. There are dangerous people among those needing aid. Having said that, I do not understand why it has taken over a week for the US Miltary to secure areas where MASH units could be set up and injured Haitians transported in. To me that would seem to have been one of the foremost objectives.

[Leopolds Ghost]

39. So there is as much violence in Port-au-Prince as there is in say New York?

Just wondering if the military was needed there post 9-11.

[Fla Dem]

44. Don't know, maybe you do. But without either civilian or military police/security

those that want to create mayhem and prey on helpless people usually will take the opportunity to do so.

[HuckleB]

164. Say what?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BR38320091228

And how is 9/11 comparable to this earthquake in any way, shape or form?

[EFerrari]

41. 80% of the escaped prisoners had never been charged with a crime

and many of them were political prisoners.

So, this crap you are forwarding is just crap.

[TxRider]

70. And the U.N. mission is doing security for those areas, not U.S. troops

[EFerrari]

73. Right. The totally independent from the US UN

Right.

[TxRider]

91. Yes.

The existing U.N. mission is handling the high gang areas, just like they were before the quake.

The U.S. mission is logistics for massive amounts of supplies.

Sorry they cannot just snap their fingers and make it appear from thin air.

[uppityperson]

121. "The U.S. mission is logistics for massive amounts of supplies."

had to repeat that line, thank you.

[EFerrari]

122. Well, no. The State Department has elbowed Brazil out of the way,

Brazil who was heading up the UN mission.

It's not about snapping anything. It's about priorities. Duh.

[TxRider]

139. Yes it's about priorities

Brazil didn't have the capacity to repair the airport, the sea port, or have capacity to move enough supplies for 3 million people's daily food and water for months. Tens of millions of pounds of supplies.

Unbelieveable.

[EFerrari]

147. And you know that how?

:)

[nadinbrzezinski]

151. Logistics capability is a good clue

[cali]

80. you have a very bad habit of spouting statistics and "facts"

without any sources, and no, because Amy Goodman says so, isn't a source dear, and neither is blatant propaganda like wsw.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

218. It's interesting to me that while some violence has clearly taken place in Haiti

you continue to criticize efforts to restore some semblance of order there. Despite the fact that the level of violence has not been over the top, things like the stoning to death of a suspected mugger earlier today still make it very clear that lawlessness remains, which is potentially negative for both Haitians and foreign aid workers alike.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Some questions for you?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7546394

[TxRider]

6. As they load up the Navy hospital ship with 1000 wounded

And open the badly damaged port for larger medical supply shipments.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Oh and one more thing, having done this shtick

second wave, will see thousands die...

Unfortunately there is not much we can do about that. They are doing all they can to minimize it in a nightmare of a logistical situation, but thousands will STILL die. They would even if this happened in the Los Angeles Basin.

[Odin2005]

8. More bullshit from WSWS.

[EFerrari]

11. From everything I have been able to figure out from reading

independent and mass media sources, they are more right than wrong. fwiw.

[Odin2005]

22. Calling it a millitary intervention is intellectually dishonest.

It implies invasion and military conflict.

[EFerrari]

31. Is it? I'm not sure at this point.

It's common knowledge that the first 72 hrs are crucial to saving lives.

The US bumped Brazil from their command position as leaders of the UN peacekeeping force.

The priority was security when there was no violence.

We now have 16,000 troops on the ground while people who could have been helped by simple anti-biotics during that time are dying.

The US policy has been to put troops on the ground in an area that had no problem with violence ahead of supplies.

The priority seems to be to secure the area of US corporate investment ahead of actual disaster relief. There are many areas outside of PaP that have yet to get a drop of water.

I don't mean to put down our great people who are working in Haiti right now. But there is clearly something else going on here besides relief -- just as there was in Katrina, where all those black people were ejected from the city so the developers could grab their real estate. :shrug:

:shrug:

[cali]

42. really? you believe that the purpose is to secure the area of U.S. corporate investments

So this purported area of U.S. corporate investments is where exactly? And please provide links for your claim that the U.S. "bumped Brazil". You do know that the U.N. and Brazilian peacekeeping forces were severely impacted by the earthquake, including significant loss of life, right?

To think this is a military intervention to protect corporate american interests, rather than a humanitarian mission is really a bit nutty.

[TxRider]

52. Wrong

The priority was getting the airport up and running, getting the docks up and running, opening another airport.

The priority was getting almost totally no aid, to a raging torrent of hundreds of thousands of tone of aid, as fast as possible.

The U.S. isn't even doing security, the U.N. contingent is.

Simple fact, understand it, it is beyond the laws of physics to get enough aid in through a single runway to service the needs of all the people in Haiti in a disaster like this. It is physically impossible.

Especially a single runway with no fuel to refuel planes.

People are going to go without until the port can be opened and more airfields can be cleared, fuel brought in, and traffic control in place.


We have to get other runways open at other airstrips, we have to get the port open so ships can bring supplies. That is what is going on as fast as can be done.


The priority is to get thousands of men and supplies in fast as possible to provide the army of men and equipment needed to open up supply lines in a destroyed island so enough food water and medical supplies can get in. That is what we are doing.

We have crammed as many planes in through the single runway as is physically possible 24/7, we have partially reopened the port, we have cleared a second airport and it is now up and running and it is still not enough for the flow of supplies that is needed.

[EFerrari]

61. I'm sorry but that's simply not true. The US effort prioritized

security over humanitarian aid in the most crucial moments. And there is really no excuse for that when there was no security problem on the ground as countless witnesses have attested.

This was not about physics, it was about priorities.

[TxRider]

79. So prove it

They had the airport up from 30 planes, to 180 planes a day in under 24 hours.

They have partially opened the port and a new airport already.

Show me our military out enforcing security as a priority.

I can show you links to commanders saying there is no security problems, and that the U.N. people are handling any trouble spots.

I can show you video of our troops repairing the port, clearing the roads, delivering supplies with helicopter.


This is about physics. Getting aid to -millions- of people through -one- runway.

[EFerrari]

89. This is about prioritizing getting boots on the ground

where aid was needed, not guns.

Not about one runway.

Go read Amy Goodman's work. Especially that segment where the Marines show up to the main hospital in PaP with guns and the director of Partners in Health confirms there is not security issue there.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/devastated_port_au_prince_hospital_struggles

Physics, my granny. This is about political control.

[WolverineDG]

95. Aid is worthless if you can't get it off the planes

or out of the airport. You DO know that, don't you?

dg

[uppityperson]

97. I wouldn't count on that assumption.

It boggles, doesn't it? When the infrastructure is that destroyed, there is a serious bottleneck there for getting stuff in and out to where it is needed.

[EFerrari]

113. Oh, man. The Cubans set up a field hospistal the next day.

8 days later, the Marines showed up to the General Hospital with their weapons.

You DO know that, don't you?

[TxRider]

131. Wrong again.

You do know those Cubans were already there, and had been, doing humanitarian medical work right?

That their field hospital was there -during- the quake right?

And did the Marines shoot them? Take them prisoner? Pack them off to Guantanamo?

Or did they ask them how they could help them? Maybe the medic even leave some supplies if he had any left, and report back that the Cuban team was there and get them on the list for supplies.

And I'm sure this 400 person Cuban humanitarian mission that was there doing work when the quake hits is more than capable of handling a million wounded survivors of a disaster, feeding them and giving them water for months... Right.

I credit the Cubans, they have been able to send in 400 more aids to bolster their medical team. Kudos to them.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

237. Thanks for posting this.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

236. You strange worship of Amy Goodman really seems to be skewing your perspective on this one.

Having met the gal, she's nice enough, but she's not all that. Better to open yourself up to a number of sources instead of relying so heavily on just one.

[Zywiec]

101. From DoD Joint Pub 3-08

Where long-term problems precede a deepening crisis, NGOs are frequently on scene before the US military and are willing to operate in
high-risk areas. They will most likely remain long after military forces have departed. Because of their capability to respond quickly
and effectively to crises, they can lessen the civil-military resources that a commander would otherwise have to devote to an operation.

<snip>

Whereas the military’s initial objective is stabilization and security for its own forces, NGOs seek to address humanitarian needs first and are often unwilling to subordinate their objectives to achievement of an end state which they had no part in determining. The extent to which specific NGOs are willing to cooperate with the military can thus vary considerably.


Force Protection will always be a top priority for any commander.

[EFerrari]

116. And it should be. But Haiti is not in a war. It had an earthquake.

[uppityperson]

126. In an earthquake, force protection should be disregarded? huh

[malaise]

133. It should not be the priority n/t

[uppityperson]

141. Protecting aid workers is not a priority? I disagree

Part of protecting them is making sure they have food, water, supplies for themselves so they do not in turn need aid. Another part of protection is making sure they are safe, again so they do not end up needing the aid they are there to give.

As far as "THE" priority, there is not one single priority in most cases, but assisting those in need AND making sure your people are safe are 2 of the main ones that go hand in hand.

[nadinbrzezinski]

146. From experiece what was drilled to me, and I drilled later on

First you protect yourself, otherwise you cannot do your job

Second you protect your partner, otherwise he cannot do the job

Third you protect your equipment, or you cannot do your job

Lastly you take care of your patient.

That is the priority in any incident... more so in a disaster

[uppityperson]

153. In real life experience here, if you see someone hit by a car, you make sure you won't get hit also

before running to help. Same thing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

160. I know....

Hell I used to do secondary survey instruction by telling my kids, you're looking for bumps, bruises, bleeding, guns, knives, needles...

That would probably surprise our locals here. Hell I DID find an itty bitty cute 22 on a belt once... and a 40 on another one of my patients...

And lets not mention the knives, pen knives, and all other crap.

[EFerrari]

135. There were zero security issues in Haiti in the first 72 hours

when peopled needed search and rescue and aid the most and soldiers not at all. You do the math.

[uppityperson]

143. None of those "soldiers" were helping with search/rescue, transportation, med?

Simply running around with guns?

Good grief. I'm done with you.

[EFerrari]

149. Good grief, they showed up at the General Hospital on Thusday

finally and all they brought were their weapons -- and they tried to protect the hospital from Amy Goodman.

Be done with me, fine, but try to learn something about what is going on in Haiti.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

242. Considering how the U.N. is running security

perhaps the question we should be asking is when did the Brazilian troops show up at the General Hospital?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

260. The same hospital that was essentially abandoned by Haitians after the quake?

The one that American volunteers reopened?

This one?

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6108550n

[uppityperson]

295. shhhhh

indeed

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

239. You don't consider the near- complete collapse of the police force a security issue?

[nadinbrzezinski]

142. to paraphrase my logicstics intructor

the only difference between a warzone and a disaster is that nobody will shoot at you in the latter, maybe.

Some of us have done this for real dear.

[nadinbrzezinski]

168. And early teams got there

I must have imagined the 125 and counting... which is actually UNPRECEDENTED...

I must have imagined the 55 teams or so, also

[truth2power]

199. Ferrari, you're going to just have to let it go...

Just keep your own counsel and don't beat your head against a wall, here.

A week ago, Sunday, David Gregory, on MTP, was promoting (twice) the idea of the US Military taking over the government of Haiti. My sense was that somebody, somewhere, was talking that up.

I came here to post that info in another thread. After retrieving the quotes from the MTP transcript I came back to find the entire thread had been disappeared. So it goes...

There are articles all over the internet expressing concern over the presence, and actions, of the US military in Haiti. It's reasonable to expect that those concerns should be addressed. I don't see that happening here.

[TxRider]

211. It's reasonable

The the largest force available and able to do accomplish the most progress the quickest should respond in a big way, and we have.

If we have Haiti covered with armed troops in 2-3 months when the disaster is less critical, then there is a reasonable concern.

Right now no single organization on the face of this planet can do more than the U.S. and our military and aid agencies. It would be criminal not to use our Naval and air assets to help these people.

It's one time where the largest military budget on earth actually pays off for the benefit of people in a very good way.

Once things are stable, and enough infrastructure repaired etc. if troops don't leave, then it's a real concern. But let's not jump the shark.

[nadinbrzezinski]

165. Show me in the MINUSTAH page where the US has command

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

243. LOL You know that she won't.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

233. You all really need to get on the same page here

I'm discussing with you, who's sitting there with a straight face claiming we've placed TOO MUCH emphasis on security while your buddy, who is also insinuating what a failure our actions have been, is posting links which claim there's NOT ENOUGH security in Haiti for truck drivers to safely deliver supplies from the Dominican Republic. Which is it?

[PacerLJ35]

271. 16,000 troops, mostly non-combat support troops...

[Mudoria]

58. Not worth much really...

[G_j]

69. yes, it is worth reading many sources to hopefully glean some truth

and this story can't be discounted off hand. There are some big problems, and anyone that thinks the military does everything right must have been n a coma for a long time.

[TxRider]

112. It certainly can

Like the fact 10,000 of this "16,000 troops with guns" are actually navy sailors on the many ships doing port repair, making clean water with desalination plants, almost 1000 are crew of the hospital ship on station....

The OP has no sense of the scale of this disaster, and no factual information of what it going on in the relief effort outside a couple of sensationalistic media reports.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

227. Surely you recognize that they're coming at this from a particular perspective

one that's heavily biased by their political beliefs. In other words, they're providing only a part of the story and not the whole thing. I realize they cater to your bias but c'mon.

[tammywammy]

248. +1 n/t

[WolverineDG]

15. who the fuck do you think is rebuilding the airport & the port?

It sure as hell ain't DWB or any other humanitarian group whining about the US.

dg

[EFerrari]

16. Who the f3ck do you think the State Department gave permission

to clean up the airport and the port?

Seriously, get over yourself. There is a big world out there and many people who know how to use shovels and hammers.

[cali]

17. whoa. wait a minute. you actually think that rebuilding the port

(in particular) and the airport were about "shovels and hammers"?

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. So who does have the logistics capacity to do this outside

military organizations? In particular the US military right now?

Mention ONE.

Be sure to include hard hats to fix the port, I mean the divers... FACs for the airport, and the rest of it.

I will be waiting.

Oh and for the record NATO forces, do... but not to the extent we do. The next in size is actually China

[WolverineDG]

20. then why didn't they show up?

get over yourself & your hatred towards anything the US does.

dg

[EFerrari]

23. Okay. The State Department is running this.

They get to tell people if they can "show up" or not.

And, you seem to be confusing observation for hatred. Whatever.

[TxRider]

27. Observation is that the Haitian Govt requested our aid.

And we are there at their request because we have the best capabilities.

And the Haitian govt. and UN are in the lead, we are doing what they ask of us.

[EFerrari]

36. The Haitian gov is a US puppet. I'm sorry, that's just how it is.

Pretending that they are in control is just a tad out of touch.

[nadinbrzezinski]

137. So in your view it would have been better we staid out

Then you'd be slamming us for not going in... dime on fucking dollar on that.

[bdamomma]

208. their government has never been in control, the US always

set up a "puppet" there. Their own President has not talk to the citizens yet.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

246. By what means would you recommend he do that?

And how in God's name is that evidence that he's our "puppet"?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

245. They're a "puppet" because they're accepting aid from the nation most capable of providing

mass quantities of it in this hemisphere?

[Leopolds Ghost]

43. There is no Haitian Gov't. It WAS a US-UN Protectorate for 15 yrs, hence ability to send in Marines

[nadinbrzezinski]

138. If this was the LA Basin they woudl be there too

and if the US did not send the Marines... then you'd be screaming because they did not...

Dime on fucking dollar on that

[WolverineDG]

30. No, you've yet to say anything positive about the US personnel there

who've been working their asses off 24/7 to get things operational while you sit & bitch & moan from the comforts of your home. That's not "observation."

dg

[EFerrari]

45. That's not true and you can search my posts on that. n/t

[WolverineDG]

49. No, you take every opportunity to bash the US efforts

yet you have yet to come up with a better solution than "let everything land." People have explained the logistics to you, but you still persist in anti-US bashing.

Life must be grand for those of you in the 404th Chairborne.

dg

[EFerrari]

56. Wrong. I have critiized the US ** policy**

And that has nothing to do with how many planes land. But, carry on.

:)

[WolverineDG]

94. Never have you distinguished between "policy" & the personnel on the ground

doing a job you have yet to thank them for nor would you be willing to do yourself.

dg

[EFerrari]

118. Wrong. You can chose to search my posts or you can chose

to slam me for stating the obvious. Choose your own adventure.

[WolverineDG]

180. Keep on bashing the US efforts then nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

181. Only correction, world efforts

there is a reason why we are putting more in, but world efforts

[EFerrari]

206. Last time I looked, it was my right to disagree with government policy.

[WolverineDG]

209. Well, there's something American you don't hate nt

[EFerrari]

219. Calling me a hater is not an argument.

[WolverineDG]

228. "Disagreeing" with US policy doesn't change the fact that

there is only so much you can do with one airport that has one runway & one ramp, in a country whose infrastructure has been destroyed.

dg

[EFerrari]

230. That's the frame you need, fine. That's not a truthful description

of this situation. And that doesn't account for privileging guns over gauze during the window of opportunity among a peaceful populace. That may sound like hatred to you but it's actually just the obvious.

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_gs7f-o2Ec

[WolverineDG]

234. That's exactly your position

and it is hatred because you accept as absolute proof anything negative about the US, while conveniently ignoring the limitations the US troops, the UN troops, & everyone else are operating under. From what I've read in your posts, everyone BUT the US, even military troops from other countries, have nothing but good intentions in Haiti. You only attribute evil intentions to anything & anyone from the US.

dg

[EFerrari]

252. Oh, please. Haitians are not dying of sepsis because of my bad attitude.

The United States took control of this situation. Our government owns it.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

256. It's interesting that you've yet to provide a source to prove that the U.S. has taken over security

for all of Haiti. You continue to talk as if this were common knowledge, but it isn't, this is something you need to prove.

[Wilms]

285. All of Haiti? Probably areas no one has been too.

Have a look/listen:

As thousands of well-equipped US soldiers pour into Haiti, there is an increasing concern about the militarization of the country, supporting the soldiers and not the people. Or, as one doctor put it, “people need gauze, not guns.”

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/22/security_red_zones_in_haiti_preventing

It's one thing to argue in order to get at the truth. It's quite another to be argumentative in order to obscure it.

[Crabby Appleton]

314. Exactly

[Crabby Appleton]

315. unreced

[TxRider]

240. Sorry, "guns over gauze" is not only not obvious, it's just not true.

[EFerrari]

251. I've yet to see evidence to the contrary. I've yet to see a medical pro

who disagrees with that. Can you find some or one?

[uppityperson]

296. I'm a medical pro and I disagree with that. Of course,you can't see me, or maybe you can...

what with your knowing "exactly" how I viewed Katrina and all.

[EFerrari]

301. You and I sat up nights and talked about Katrina as it was going down

and I didn't claim to know anything about you exactly. Wow.

And you're not on the ground in Haiti, with due respect. That's what I meant, maybe I'm just expressing this badly. I haven't seen or heard or read any medical person there that disagreed with that.

Today is Saturday. It looks like things started to turn around on Wednesday afternoon in the capitol although, there is still little or nothing in the provinces where the epicenter was.

[uppityperson]

310. The slowness is bad, in any disaster. 1 like this is really difficult since so much

of the infrastructure was destroyed. I am glad that groups like MSF were already set up, but the converse (that they needed to be there already) is not a good thing.

Did you name change?

I'm done snarking, tired of it.

[EFerrari]

324. It's been a very long week and more.

Yes, I name changed from sfexpat2000.

No worries. There's been a lot of tension, most of it completely warranted.

[uppityperson]

326. Thanks, and I agree

very much so. sorry for the snarking.

[TxRider]

297. Certainly

And even some U.S. troops that were assigned to secure a downtown hospital..

"The hospital is in a government compound and has little security. Crowds in the area haven’t turned violent but the sheer number of people around, most of whom are uninjured, makes it difficult for aid workers to help the injured — and for the injured to reach the aid workers.

Charlie Company’s mission over the next few days is to inject some order into the chaos by securing the gates and controlling the surging crowds. The rest of the battalion is outside of Port-au-Prince and largely tasked with humanitarian efforts, such as setting up areas for pallet drops of food and water. They will link up the World Food Program and the United Nations.

In addition to security, Charlie Company is helping the aid workers operate more efficiently. For example, the soldiers are helping to map out the compound. The doctors have had a hard time directing people to where they need go; they have only a scrap piece of paper with a sharpie sketch of the layout.

As the soldiers started to take control of the compound, doctors greeted them warmly and with gratitude.

“Glad you’re here,” one doctor said. “I’m going to get you boys a raise.”

Only some of the buildings within the compound are still standing. Across from the building soldiers are using as a home base, a nursing school is now a pile of concrete. Aid workers estimate 70 people were killed when the building came down. The stench has only recently become bearable, aid workers say."


Unfortunately they later had to evacuate the hospital after a bad aftershock.


Here go follow this reporter, he hooked up with the 82nd airborne "gunslingers" to militarize the country.

Read all of his daily postings since the 17th, and see what the gunslingers have done since the day they got there. Take your time, read it all, the guy has pics, video, and a day to day account of the invasion of imperial storm troopers in quite detail.

http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/world/haiti/blog/6816684/?s=35

[EFerrari]

303. Oh, brother. Do you remember what day that quake hit? It was on the 12th.

82nd Airborne flying out to capital
By Bryan Mims

Jan. 17, 2010

[TxRider]

305. Of course

And the Navy arrived on the 14th with the first carrier, and disgorged all it's spare provisions, and immediately started ferrying supplies in from Guantanamo.

And the 82nd arrived in Haiti on the 16th and passed out all their provisions, and started working on moving supplies out to where they were needed.

And when asked to come help at the hospital, by the doctor first on scene, they did so. Apparently showing up just before Goodman.

They immediately opened a landing zone, ferried out critical cases, and generally did what they could to help.

Meanwhile they also passed out water and food at the stadium, while also flying water out to outlying areas.

And by the 21st the hospital was flooded with supplies.

Now they are trying to get sanitation taken care of, as disease is starting to spread, and that too will be addressed as fast as they can.


That's your militarizing "boots on the ground before a drop of water"... Shameful.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6108550n&tag=api

[EFerrari]

325. Mine and a host of others. Shame on you for trying to portray this

as solely my issue.

And, you cropped my statement. So add dishonest to shameful.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

247. Oh, absolutely, it is interesting that out of all the posts of yours I've read

you've yet to find one thing about U.S. policy you like though. Everything's either botched or part of some grand, secret conspiracy to conquer Third World peoples.

[nadinbrzezinski]

132. Actually it is NOT hte state department but the HOST government

Last time I checked that was NOT the US...

Whatever.

[tallahasseedem]

278. +1

nt.

[Codeine]

24. Shovels and hammers to open a port?

You ain't real clear on the actual processes involved here, are you?

[cali]

28. what? didn't you know that if the U.S. wasn't cruelly occupying

Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela would have had the port and airport up and running within 24 hours and they would have saved far more Haitians?

[TxRider]

25. Who the f3ck do you think the haitian govt and the UN asked to clean it up?

The U.S. Military because they have the best capability.

And everything the military is doing is at the request and under the lead of the Haitian Govt. and the U.N.

[EFerrari]

71. You may not know this but the Haitian government is our puppet

and we ride roughshod over the UN.

You can't talk about a Haitian government OR about the UN without considering our influence on both.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

258. The Haitian government is our "puppet" because they allowed us to supply aid?

[uppityperson]

98. "many people who know how to use shovels and hammers."??? ha ha ha

You almost had me believing you until this post. "many people who know how to use shovels and hammers" and this will instantly rebuild the port and airport? Clueless.

[EFerrari]

128. Nope. The posters assumption is that only the US could do those tasks.

That's obviously not true.

And frankly, I don't need to convince you of anything. Our State Department has done its best to run everyone else off. They have taken control. And voila, this is the result.

[TxRider]

134. They haven't run anyone off

They got more people -IN-

By opening the airport, maximizing flights in and out, opening the port, and working to widen the flow of supplies into the country by everyone.

[EFerrari]

140. Wrong. Brazil was in charge of security, they were run off.

The cluster of humanitarian orgs that were already on the ground have been disregarded. The network of clinics Partners in Health has been running for years, shut out.

Welcome to the "new Haiti".

[nadinbrzezinski]

150. Perhaps I have misread the MINUSTAH page

SHOW ME where Brazil left

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/

[TxRider]

169. Brazil still -is- in charge of security

I want some of what your smoking.

From the U.N. on the 19th..

"Moments ago, the Security Council unanimously passed resolution 1908, increasing the size and strength of MINUSTAH. The move clears the way for an additional 1,500 UN Police and 2,000 UN peacekeeping troops. Brazil is expected to contribute the bulk of the troops and the European Union will dispatch police units to Haiti."

http://www.undispatch.com/node/9447

[uppityperson]

136. That is an awful big assumption of what that poster posted.

[EFerrari]

144. I'm not very good at making big assumptions. This is what the poster said:

"Who the f3ck do you think the haitian govt and the UN asked to clean it up?"

You see, the Haitian people know how to get things done without any support whatsoever. So the poster, while that may not have been his intention, is not only clueless about the flood of foreign aid incoming that isn't American, but also not respectful of Haitians.

No, I'm not assuming anything. I'm reading post after post that assumes Haitians are not active participants in their own crisis and that USA, USA is the savior when the US effort has clearly been less then well done.

Don't listen to my ranting. Sit back and wait for other reports, up.

[uppityperson]

152. Wrong, you are very good at making big assumptions. Very good.

Rather large leap to "the posters assumption is that only the US could do those tasks."

You seriously believe that "the Haitian people know how to get things done without any support whatsoever."? You seriously believe no one in the world, no organization or country should have provided ANY support since "the Haitian people know how to get things done without any support whatsoever"?

Where is "post after post that assumes Haitians are not active participants in their own crisis"? WHERE?

Good lord. You are VERY good at making big assumptions.

[EFerrari]

166. Nope. I said the Haitian people were good at doing for themselves

not that they needed no help.

Good lord right back at you for bad reading.

[uppityperson]

170. My copy/paste of what you wrote is "bad reading". Fail

[EFerrari]

172. Your paste worked fine, your reading, not so much.

:)

And fail yourself for being so defensive over a situation that is being widely acknowledged.

[uppityperson]

176. " And fail yourself for being so defensive over a situation that is being widely acknowledged."

Wild. Simply wild. Well, good luck with trying to convince others since you will need it.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

262. Right, they were so good at it that they decided to abandon their hospitals, airport, etc.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

261. Hold on a minute here

I mean no disrespect to what the Haitian people have gone through here, but your insistence that they had things utter control is insane. They abandoned the airport, they abandoned the hospitals, they abandoned the police forces... These are all essentials in times of emergency.

[nadinbrzezinski]

148. That is why we have OTHER navies on station

and OTHER national troops....

As well as countless NGOs...

[Merchant Marine]

167. Ok, I'll play ball

Who could do it?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

244. +1

[spanone]

19. military intervention? bullshit

[EFerrari]

21. Again, respectfully disagree. The US priority was to put 1600 troops on the ground

not to supply the hospitals or networks of clinics.

What would you call that?

[TxRider]

29. And what exactly do you think those 1600 troops are doing?

Building the supply infrastructure to supply a network of clinics from scratch to deal with tens of thousands of wounded and hundreds of thousands of thirsty starving people.

[EFerrari]

74. Is that what you think they're doing?

I watched on Wednesday when they finally showed up to the largest hospital in PaP.

They had guns and no supplies. They tried to turn the press away.

What do you think they are doing?

What day is it now? Day 10?

[nadinbrzezinski]

129. They HAD supplies

keep telling us they did not... please

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

264. Also true, the American volunteers who reopened this hospital brought supplies with them.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

263. Again, you're referring to the hospital that American volunteers discovered ABANDONED

when they arrived to help out.

[PacerLJ35]

273. OK, you saw ONE event at ONE location...

Anecdotal...compare that with the hundreds of videos, photos and first-hand accounts of the US distributing aid throughout the area.

[uppityperson]

99. The are Stealing and Protecting Big Pharma interests in Haiti. See?

"many people who know how to use shovels and hammers"

[cali]

32. what garbage. Those troops have been on a humanitarian mission

the other poster is right- your reflexive anti-anything American is overriding any logic here. Were mistakes made? Of course, in a situation as overwhelming, chaotic and desperate as this, that's inescapable, but to actually believe that the U.S. just wanted boots on the ground for the sake of boots on the ground or for some more nefarious purpose, is just pitiful. expected from you, but pitiful nevertheless.

[WolverineDG]

37. Okay brainiac, let's see how YOU get the hospitals & clinics supplied

and staffed....let every damn plane land and then what? With no support(equipment and personnel) on the ground, you're stuck. And with the airport jammed with supply planes, you now can't fly in the support you need to offload them. WTG!!!!

dg

[EFerrari]

68. Lame. Brazil was doing a fine job before State elbowed them out.

And doctors and nurses are going to hardware stores for saws to do amputations. Amy Goodman went all over the place last week were there were no Marines and the US policy has been to send in troops first and aid later.

Don't even bother to insult me because it's a waste of your time.

When a guy from CNN makes a segment out of going to the airport and bagging supplies to take out to the hospital, even you should recognize that this effort is Katrina Redux.

[WolverineDG]

93. gee, maybe if they'd sent in trucks & drivers

the equipment could have gotten from the airport to the clinics. :think:

:eyes:

dg

[EFerrari]

125. I hope that strawman can dance and sing.

[WolverineDG]

197. Not a strawman--it's logistics nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

175. It would have helpd if MINUSTAH wasn't decapitated and did

not lose a few trucks under the rubble

[uppityperson]

177. picky picky picky

[nadinbrzezinski]

174. AGAIN show me again where Brazil was elbowed out

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

266. You honestly think things were under control? The hospital you keep harping on and on about was

EMPTY when American volunteers arrived, for Christ's sake. Help was very clearly needed.

[SidDithers]

33. Unrec...

more whinging from teh 404th Chairborne.

Sid

[Violet_Crumble]

35. 404th Chairborne...LOL n/t

[WolverineDG]

40. Hey, I forgot about that

Yup, the Fightin' 404th!!

dg

[Leopolds Ghost]

51. And you are doing what?

[Violet_Crumble]

63. They're doing a fine job of taking the piss out of self important armchair experts n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

38. WOW!!! That is some seriously twisted shit right there.

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick :crazy:

[Leopolds Ghost]

46. What's twisted about educating yourself on poor US priorities in the Caribbean, 1914-present?

I'm sure SOME people are doing their jobs but the rescue phase is over. O-VER. Not a single US military detail was brought in to save people from the rubble. They are a mop-up operation.

So then why did they prohibit first responders from landing?

[Cali_Democrat]

50. Perhaps you're right

It's time to end the US military intervention in Haiti. Maybe a march on Washington is needed by we the people.

[Leopolds Ghost]

54. As if you cared about the fact that we've been there since 1914

People will say the same thing about US troops in the Middle East next time there's a disaster there and the military is the "only force in the vicinity" capable of helping.

Tell me, why are only 6 US search and rescue teams in Haiti and they only rescued 30 Haitians, but they rescued 3,000 Americans?

There are 27 int'l search and rescue teams.

[Cali_Democrat]

65. Stop the US military intervention in Haiti and bring those troops home.

I think I'm gonna write to Obama and let him know that the US military occupation of Haiti is unacceptable.

[TxRider]

88. Pull all US assets out this minute!

They don't need our help, we're just getting in the way!

[cliffordu]

62. Again, please don't let the facts stand in your way.

really.

[EFerrari]

100. The facts, really? Like sending 16000 troops

to an area that is not in turmoil?

Maybe you should take your own advice.

[TxRider]

104. The area is in turmoil, you know, earthquake?

Who should they send, the AARP membership?

They need manpower to feed 3 million people for over a month.

Common sense much?

[EFerrari]

111. Well, no. There was no violence. There was a people in need of aid.

The need was to prioritize humanitarian efforts above unneeded gunslingers for the first 72 hours.

Common sense much?

[uppityperson]

124. Which they did. eom

[TxRider]

179. And just how, pray tell, do you organize this?

Maybe by sending your first people on the ground out to cover the city, see what is damaged, who is out there and where, where supplies are needed.

What is the state of all the medical facilities, where do the search and rescue teams need to deploy.. Where are areas to send helicopters to land and distribute aid, you know common sense things.

You know, size up the situation, get data on a massive disaster to maybe have a good start at organizing the massive relief effort?

Unneeded gunslingers... ROFL... Tell me, who did the gunslingers shoot?

[uppityperson]

182. I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.

sorry

[uppityperson]

105. "an area that is not in turmoil?" What. The. Fuck? A devastating earthquake didn't cause turmoil?

[cliffordu]

107. Apparently your misunderstanding of the situation on the ground down there

adds to your preconceived notions about what the military CAN do and is doing.

Who knows, maybe you're right....

Maybe its for shits and giggles. Or maybe they just arrived to kill children and rape everyone else.


:shrug:

Who can say??

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

269. "an area that is not in turmoil"? Seriously!? You're outdoing yourself on that one

[nadinbrzezinski]

178. I must have imagined the 54 teams from aroudn the world

On the ground....

Pass some of what you're smoking

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

268. Do tell, how is Wilson's foreign policy particularly relevant to this situation?

I mean, clearly you feel it is. Enlighten me.

[Junkdrawer]

47. Every day, more and more observers are asking "Why so many troops with guns, why so little..."

aid distribution?"

And the "Don't second-guess the troops, Don't be an ingrate" excuses are wearing thin.

[TxRider]

53. How many supplies can you deliver with a single runway?

Answer? A drop in the bucket.

Why so many troops with guns?

Answer? To have enough men to clear roads, open more airfields, repair the port, and establish distribution points for aid in a destroyed island nation.

Any more obvious questions?

[Junkdrawer]

57. CNN: Aid makes it to Haiti, but not onto streets....

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Aid is reaching earthquake-torn Haiti, but getting it to the people who need it remains a challenge.

Large quantities of medications, baby formula and other relief supplies are sitting on the tarmac and in warehouses at the Port-au-Prince airport, but no one is moving it out, according to CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta.

"It's like everywhere we go, just walking through the airport, outside the airport even, people are saying, 'We need supplies,' " Gupta said.

Gupta found pallets of formula, pain medication and antibiotics standing unattended next to the runway.

U.S. military personnel in a warehouse tent at the airport gave Gupta a trash bag full of supplies to take back to a hospital he had visited earlier but couldn't explain why there seemed to be no organized system for distribution.

...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/22/haiti.earthquake/index.html

[TxRider]

66. And?

You think they are hoarding it?

Why didn't Gupta bother to -ask- what was going on? You know, talk to someone in charge?

You think they aren't moving supplies as fast as possible?

But from your link it appears someone else actually did ask.

""There is stuff here waiting to be taken out, that's a true statement," said Air Force Col. Ben McMullen, deputy commander of the Joint Special Operations Air Component. "Is it a lot? I can't speak to it. I will tell you the reason you got it is that everyone on this side, specifically the U.S. government side, is dedicated to getting as much stuff outside as they can. ...

"It's a shame, because you would hope that everything could get out there within seconds. But that kind of infrastructure just isn't in place."

"More than 300 aid distribution sites are up and running, a senior U.S. administration official said. More than 700,000 meals and 1.4 million bottles of water have been delivered, along with 22,000 pounds of medical supplies, said Lt. Gen. Douglas Fraser of the U.S. Southern Command."

[Junkdrawer]

60. "Security “Red Zones” in Haiti Preventing Large Aid Groups from Effectively Distributing Aid"

As thousands of well-equipped US soldiers pour into Haiti, there is an increasing concern about the militarization of the country, supporting the soldiers and not the people. Or, as one doctor put it, “people need gauze, not guns.” We take a look at aid distribution in Haiti and the effect on Haitians fighting to survive in the aftermath of the earthquake.

AMY GOODMAN: Haiti is preparing for a massive relocation of survivors of last week’s earthquake out of the capital Port-au-Prince. Some 400,000 people will be moved to camps outside the city. Up to two million people were left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake, which is estimated to have killed as many as 200,000 people.

As thousands of well-equipped US soldiers pour into Haiti, there is an increasing concern about the militarization of the country, supporting the soldiers and not the people. Or, as one doctor put it, “We need gauze, not guns.” Relief workers continue to report dire shortages of food, aid and medical supplies, amidst fears the dire conditions will spark outbreaks of infectious disease.

....

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/22/security_red_zones_in_haiti_preventing

[nadinbrzezinski]

183. I'd rather read operational reports from people in the Field

like I don't know the Red Cross

Haiti earthquake: ICRC aids 3,000 survivors living in desperate conditions
While the more affluent are leaving Port-au-Prince for the countryside, hundreds of thousands are camping out in squares, sports fields and other open areas transformed into makeshift camps. Yesterday, some 3,000 camp-dwellers in Primatur received much needed aid.

Distributing aid between the aftershocks

The residents of Port-au-Prince endured several more aftershocks on Thursday, and people are currently living under very difficult conditions in more than 250 open areas. These areas include Primatur, where some 3,000 people are living in makeshift shelters. On Thursday evening, an ICRC team supported by thirteen volunteers from the Haitian Red Cross and a number of people living in the camp distributed blankets, soap and jerrycans for storing drinking water. They also handed out plastic sheeting with which families could set up temporary shelters and regain some privacy in a crowded camp.

"Things are tough for the people here. We will do our utmost to deliver additional aid in the coming days," said ICRC nutritionist Ana Gerlin Hernández.

The ICRC is working closely with the Haitian National Red Cross Society, and the international Red Cross and Red Crescent relief effort is being coordinated and led by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. For more details on the overall Red Cross Red Crescent response to the earthquake, please visit the Federation website at www.ifrc.org.


Medical supplies for field hospitals

The ICRC provided additional medical supplies on Thursday to a 70-bed field hospital from the Norwegian and Canadian Red Cross and the Israeli National Society, the Magen David Adom. Doctors there have been treating over 80 seriously-injured people a day and had run out of supplies. The ICRC also delivered much-needed supplies to a clinic in the Carrefour neighbourhood run by Doctors without Borders (Netherlands).

The Haitian Red Cross, supported by the ICRC, opened a new first-aid post in the Carrefour sports complex, where thousands of people have gathered. Red Cross volunteers treated 23 casualties in the first few hours. Meanwhile, doctors from the Finnish Red Cross started work at another new first-aid post in Carrefour Feuille.

For the second time in a week, the ICRC delivered first-aid supplies to the Haitian Red Cross first-aid post in Cité Soleil, a shantytown with a population of around 200,000 where very few other humanitarian organizations have been active so far.

In the Bel Air area of Port-au-Prince, an ICRC health team evaluated the needs of a hospice for the elderly, which had suffered heavy earthquake damage. People there need first aid, and there are neither latrines nor water. Owing to the dire conditions at the hospice, the ICRC intends to support the facility for the next few days.

ICRC forensic specialists provided body bags to the morgue of the Hôpital Universitaire de l'État d'Haïti (HUEH), one of Port-au-Prince’s two referral hospitals.


Restoring family links

Teams helping people to re-establish contact with their relatives are operating in four camps and on Thursday facilitated almost 300 phone calls between residents in Port-au-Prince and relatives living abroad. Over the past three days, the service has allowed almost 900 people to make such calls. The joint ICRC/Haitian Red Cross teams also registered the names of 193 people eager to let their loved ones know that they were alive and well on the ICRC family links website (www.icrc.org/familylinks).


As of Friday, the family links site for Haiti contained over 24,100 names. The site has been revamped since the start of the emergency and is now accessible in four languages including Creole. Over 1,900 of the names are people reporting that they are alive and safe, and by Friday the ICRC had been able to remove 564 names because the people concerned had been traced.


http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/haiti-earthquake-update-220110

NOTE TO MODS this is a press release

[Leopolds Ghost]

55. These are the new conservatism that is running the Dem party down. Don't criticise, don't ask ?s. nt

[TxRider]

67. Just common sense really

Asking is fine. Accusing a relief effort of being a military intervention is not asking, or even rational.

[EFerrari]

76. Putting 16000 troops on the ground before you put a bottle of water down

is not rational.

[TxRider]

84. And also not true, not even close to true.

We even put water desalinization plants on the ground before we put 16,000 troops down.

Geez, where do you get this hogwash from?

Half that number is Navy, who sped to the scene and emptied the ships stores on arrival.

[EFerrari]

156. Great. I'd love to be wrong. Where did we put water down

before we put troops down? Thanks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

186. Many places, if you care to go read operational briefs from places like

the ICRC

[TxRider]

188. You couldn't be more wrong

First, 10,000 of the 16,000 are navy and coast guard sailors on boats. Hardly gun slinging troops.

Second they distributed all the spare water and food they had on board the ships day one.

Third within 24hrs supplies were getting distributed from the US, flown to Guantanamo, ferried in by Navy and coast guard helicopter.

You really do need better sources of info and a little common sense.

[uppityperson]

194. Thank you TxRider for continuing to post.

Very much appreciate you when I just want to run in circles tearing my hair out.

[nadinbrzezinski]

185. So far from the truth is not even funny

[ddeclue]

48. What a misleading headline..."intervention" implies an unwanted presence

it isn't intervention it is AID.

[EFerrari]

77. Cain you cite any Haitian asking for armed troops ahead of water?

Thanks.

[TxRider]

85. The armed troops carry the water, and the portable desalinization plants

[EFerrari]

120. Okay. That isn't what I ask you.

[uppityperson]

130. Strawman. They aren't getting "armed troops ahead of water".

The armed troops carry the water, and portable desalinization plants.

But go ahead and keep pushing that meme since it seems to make you happy.

[EFerrari]

154. Nope. The armed troops are there well ahead of water.

Do some research on your own. And don't pretend to know what makes me happy, thanks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

187. The ICRC does not agree with you

but keep repeating that meme...

[Merchant Marine]

190. You're right

The first plane in was 82nd Airborne and their Forward Air Controllers to guide in more planes.

The next planes in were probably military bulldozers to clear rubble around the airport.

No sense in sending in aid without anyone to distribute it.

[ddeclue]

205. The PRESIDENT OF HAITI.

[Name removed]

59. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cali_Democrat]

75. We leave and the WSWS will have an article about how we abandoned the Haitians.

Some people will bitch and moan about anything while they pound away on their keyboards in their mother's basement.

[EFerrari]

81. You should blast this post to Thom, to Amy, to Laura

to Randall Robinson, to Mark Danner, to John Perkins.

I'm sure they'd all appreciate the update.

:eyes:

[goldcanyonaz]

64. Oh goody, another America is evil post

[EFerrari]

72. If you don't like what your government is doing, maybe time to

do something else.

[TxRider]

87. Lets just call them all home, right now.

Let the rest of the world deal with it.

That's your solution?

[WolverineDG]

96. Of course, cuz then she'll have something new to whine about nt

[EFerrari]

102. Haiti would only benefit.

[TxRider]

106. Benefit from 16000 less relief workers?

Benefit from a couple of hundred less helicopters delivering aid and evacuating wounded?

Benefit from 1000 less hospital beds, and 8 less modern operating rooms?

Benefit for a half dozen less water treatment units?

Benefit from no divers and specialist crews repairing the ports.

Benefit from removing trucks to carry supplies?

You have an awfully strange definition of benefit. Somehow I seriously doubt anyone actually homeless in Haiti would agree with you.

[EFerrari]

110. Haiti would only benefit from our political agenda getting out of the way

of life saving. No, that's not a strange viewpoint at all.

[TxRider]

115. It is when there is no agenda getting in the way.

And you can show none.

[EFerrari]

157. Really? So why did we militarize an earthquake

if not to stay on top of a political situation that we've controlled since 1910?

Take your time.

[uppityperson]

159. Where did "we militarize an earthquake"?

Take your time

[EFerrari]

171. Let's see. 16000 troops on the ground before a drop of water

to the biggest hospital in Haiti.

If that isn't militarizing a disaster area, I don't know what is. But don't bother with me. Go check out what Amy Goodman, Thom Hartmann, Laura Flanders, Mark Danner, Randall Robinson and yes, even Cooper on CNN are saying.

Because I'm not alone in seeing what is happening in Haiti and to make it about me is just mendacious, sorry.

[uppityperson]

173. You are changing the goal posts. Fail again. "to the biggest hospital in Haiti."

"16000 troops on the ground before a drop of water" is what you have been writing. Now you change it to "to the biggest hospital in Haiti". Let's see if next you narrow it down to a specific unit in that hospital, perhaps a specific nurse or patient.

Fail.

[EFerrari]

198. No, I haven't changed anything. I've been posting about the General Hospital

for days.

Fail yourself and especially for forgetting that both of us watched Katrina in exactly the same way.

[uppityperson]

292. "both of us watched Katrina in exactly the same way"? Are you claiming I am your sockpuppet? wtf?

Or are you claiming you are sitting next to me, seeing everything I see as I see it? That is REALLY creepy.

I don't care if you've been posting about the General Hospital "for days", but on all I've replied to here you haven't specified that until now.

"Fail yourself and especially for forgetting that both of us watched Katrina in exactly the same way."??? Creepy indeed.

[TxRider]

192. Umm hate to tell ya hun, 10k of that 16k are sailors on ships.

Sailors that offloaded all their spares of food and water and distributed them on arrival.

Not to mention having now set up 48 distribution points for water, fed by ship board water desalinization units.

[EFerrari]

270. Hun? And are you telling me that 10k sailors aren't diverting resources?

And what day is it, anyway? Day 9 or so?

[TxRider]

288. They brought resources, and delivered them.

And are still doing so. Currently delivering -hundreds of thousands- of gallons of fresh water daily to the city, putting in large tanks at the 48 distribution centers, instead of little bottles.

1000 are the crew of a 1000 bed hospital ship.

About 5000 are the crew of the carrier, who have been ferrying supplies 24/7 in a relay operation with planes flying supplies to Guantanamo and ferried vie the carriers helicopters to Haiti since the 15th to bolster the supplies that could be brought through the Airport.

Several hundred are crew of the salvage ships who now have the port at 30% capacity and unloading supply ships for the NGO's.

You just can't give these people a break. Nor Obama who sent them who's policy is humanitarian.


If they are still there in year, you'll have a point.

[EFerrari]

302. The first crucial hours and days were devoted to security not aid.

There is no disputing that. That means, people dying from preventable deaths.

And unless this planet vaporizes, yes, we will still be controlling Haiti in a year as we have since 1910.

[TxRider]

304. Ther certainly is disputing that

There is zero evidence to support your claims, none.

[PacerLJ35]

313. That's a bunch of baloney

My friend and former flight engineer Bill is currently an engineer on MC-130H Combat Talons. He's already been down there on numerous flights and his airplane was one of the very first US aircraft to arrive...first with a special tactics team...not for security, but to bring some semblance of order to an airport that had people arriving unannounced and uncoordinated...it was to prevent aircraft from potentially running into each other, and to get the airport lights working so people could land at night. The second and third flights were full of aid...food, water and medical supplies...on the way out they first evacuated US embassy personnel and then started flying out Haitians for medical treatment that couldn't be done in country or on the ships. One flight they logged 12 hours, half of it spent orbiting and hitting a tanker to avoid running out of gas.

[dgibby]

307. You seem to be a real EXPERT on disasters, not to mention the military.

How many have you been in? What was your role? What type of training do you have? Why aren't you in Haiti running the show? I'm sure they'd be more than happy to have you there. Then everyone else could pack up and go home.

[Texasgal]

193. Why do you want Haiti

to fail?

You sound like you would do a big happy dance if thousands MORE died.

You are really despicable. :puke:

[frog92969]

78. Doctor: Misinformation and Racism Have Frozen Recovery Effort at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince

Doctor: Misinformation and Racism Have Frozen Recovery Effort at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince
democracynow.org

“There are no security issues,” says Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health, reporting from the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince in Haiti, where 1,000 people are in need of operations. Lyon said the reports of violence in the city have been overblown by the media and have affected the delivery of aid and medical services.


http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/doctor_misinformation_and_racism_have_frozen

[EFerrari]

I'm out of this thread, stuff to do. But, have to day, truth hurts.

[frog92969]

90. Peace

:)

[uppityperson]

103. "But, have to day, truth hurts." Random, dude

[EFerrari]

114. Not random. Our ranch was flooded yesterday.

And thank gawd there are no Marines here to "help" out.

It's about context, "dude".

[uppityperson]

119. What does " But, have to day, truth hurts" mean?

[EFerrari]

123. It was a typo for "have to do today".

Sorry, a lot going on here. :)

[dgibby]

308. I'm glad they're not there either.

I'd rather they spend their time on people who appreciate their efforts, not some ingrate.

[frog92969]

82. Bottled Water Supplies in Port-au-Prince Airport Being Distributed…to US Embassy

Bottled Water Supplies in Port-au-Prince Airport Being Distributed…to US Embassy
democracynow.org

In the airport in Port-au-Prince, huge pallets of aid, including medical supplies, food and water, sit in fields around the tarmac. Amy Goodman reports on how hundreds of cases of bottled water are being delivered to the US embassy.


http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/21/bottled_water_supplies_in_port_au

[TxRider]

108. Indeed, Im sure that is the only single place any water has been delivered

On January 12, a massive earthquake struck the nation of Haiti, causing catastrophic damage inside and around the capital city of Port-au-Prince. President Obama has said, “at this moment, we are moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history -- to save lives and to deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe. In these difficult hours, America stands united. We stand united with the people of Haiti, who have shown such incredible resilience, and we will help them to recover and to rebuild.”

The United States Government has mobilized resources and people to aid in the relief effort. At the direction of President Obama, this is a whole-of-government effort, and USAID has the lead in this swift, aggressive and coordinated response. Military personnel are playing an indispensable role in supporting this humanitarian effort, including making the logistics chain possible and distributing life-saving assistance. Aid workers are working around the clock to deliver more aid more quickly and more effectively to more people in need.

Below, please find some key facts and examples of government actions to date. All numbers below are current as of 3 p.m., Thursday, January 21.

INTERNATIONAL COORDINATION

At the request of the Haitian government, the U.S. continues to coordinate America’s relief efforts with the United Nations and the international community. We are coordinating closely with more than 30 nations and hundreds of NGOs to deliver food and water quickly throughout the country.

*
Secretary of State Clinton discussed Haiti with UK Foreign Secretary Miliband and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Catherine Ashton, earlier today in Washington. The Secretary stressed the vital partnership underway in Haiti, with the U.S. and EU countries working side by side on relief and rescue operations, and the need for a “coordinated, integrated, international response to the reconstruction and the return of prosperity and opportunity to Haiti.”
*
At the United Nations, the U.S. Deputy Ambassador, Alejandro Wolff, addressed the UN press corps to draw attention to the broad international character of the rescue and relief effort in Haiti. Held just before another pledging round for the UN Flash Appeal, Ambassador Wolff was joined by UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes and the Ambassadors from Haiti, Brazil, Canada, France and Uruguay.

HEALTH/MEDICAL

*
• Yesterday, the hospital ship USNS Comfort started receiving injured patients from the local hospitals and international medical facilities. The Comfort has a crew of 850 to provide a host of medical services, and will eventually provide nearly 1,000 hospital beds, and 11 operating rooms.
o
The USNS Comfort has treated more than 230 patients received from 10 hospital sites already.
*
• As of January 21, more than 7,000 patients have been treated by the 5 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) from the Department of Health and Human Services and one International Medical Surgical Team (IMSuRT) in Haiti (all funded by USAID/OFDA). These teams treated 2,160 patients on January 20.
o
Each DMAT has 35 staff members and 40 beds and functions as a field emergency room, while the IMSuRT has 50 staff members and 35 beds and performs disaster surgery.

AIRPORTS & PORTS

*
The airport in Port au Prince is open around the clock. The U.S. Air Force continues to manage air operations at the request of the Haitian Government. And the State Department continues to coordinate closely with our international partners and NGOs to facilitate the smooth arrival of aid and personnel. This is a consultative process with the government of Haiti and the UN involving dozens of international assistance flights, beyond U.S. civilian and military flights.
o
On January 20, 153 flights arrived (38 of those were official U.S. flights).
o
For example, of the 330 arrivals from January 16 - 18, approximately half were civilian/humanitarian, and less than 30% were military:
+
155 were civilian aircraft,
+
91 from U.S. military and government aircraft, and
+
84 from international governments and militaries – the proportion of international flights is rising.
+
On 1/18, flights landed from: Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, France, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United States, Ukraine, and from the United Nations and numerous international aid organizations such as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the World Food Program (WFP).
+
The WFP has placed a coordination cell at the airport in Haiti to assist with the prioritization of flights and the movement of humanitarian assistance through the airport to areas of need in Haiti.
o
The port is beginning to receive some ships and is about 30% operational. The port at Jacmel, southwest of Port-au-Prince is currently operational during daylight for certain vessels. U.S. Army/Navy dive teams with underwater construction teams continued to assess port structural damage.
*
U.S. Transportation Command reports that since commencing air operations, a total of 160 missions have been flown that have carried more than 2,600 tons of relief supplies and more than 2,500 military and relief personnel into Haiti.

SAFETY & SECURITY

*
As of January 21, approximately 13,000 military personnel (10,000 afloat and 3,000 ashore) are a part of the relief effort.
o
The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) continues to provide assistance in support of Leogane and Petit Goave. They currently have 356 Marines ashore.
o
The remaining assets from 2/82 Brigade Combat Team and equipment will complete deployment to Port-au-Prince by January 22. They currently have 3,062 soldiers on ground.
*
As of January 21 there are 20 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships, 63 helicopters, and 204 vehicles in the joint operations area.
o
The U.S. Coast Guard has 12 aircraft operating in Haiti:
+
Five C-130 airplanes
+
One C-144 airplane
+
Three H-65 helicopters
+
Three H-60 helicopters
o
The U.S. Coast Guard has 6 vessels:
+
Coast Guard Cutter Valiant
+
Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma
+
Coast Guard Cutter Forward
+
Coast Guard Cutter Oak
+
Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton
+
Coast Guard Cutter Legare
+
Additionally, the Coast Guard has 3 vessels in the Florida Straits to support any tasking related to Haiti relief efforts: Coast Guard Cutters Alert, Dependable, and Venturous.
o
The U.S. Coast Guard has 801 service members on site assisting with recovery:
+
26 ashore,
+
719 afloat,
+
56 aircrew.
*
SOUTHCOM funded and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) contracted for the purchase of 50,000 hand held radios to distribute to the Haitian people.
o
As of the last night, 43,800 radios had arrived in Port-au-Prince. The remaining 6,200 radios are slated for delivery to Special Operations Command South by January 25 and flow into Haiti thereafter
o
The Military Information Support Team (MIST) in coordination with USAID will begin distribution of these radios immediately. 60,000 stickers, with the frequencies on them, and 60,000 hand bills that demonstrate (with pictures) how to operate the radio will be distributed with the radios.
o
This hand held radio initiative is part of an overall effort to reach the people of Haiti via FM/AM broadcasting of VOA programming and CJTF Haiti public service announcements.

EVACUATION & RESCUES

*
The U.S. government continues evacuations from Haiti around the clock. The total number of people evacuated from Haiti by the U.S. is approximately 10,500, of which 8,300 were American citizens. More than 1,100 Americans have been evacuated today, as of 3 p.m.
*
Search and Rescue: Currently, 43 international USAR teams, comprised of 1,739 rescue workers, with 161 dogs, are working in Haiti. 6 of those teams are from the United States – with 511 rescue workers from Fairfax County, Los Angeles County, Miami, Miami-Dade, Virginia Beach, and New York.
o
USAID/OFDA has provided more than $36 million in support of U.S. USAR teams deployed to Haiti to date.
o
U.S. USAR teams are currently conducting secondary reconnaissance missions throughout Port-au-Prince following the aftershock yesterday.

FOOD & WATER

*
C-17 air delivery of food and water resumed today -- 14,000 water bottles and 14,500 MREs/Humanitarian Rations were slated for delivery. The drop zone is in the vicinity of Mirebalais, about 25 miles northeast of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. A MINUSTAH battalion secured the site.
*
U.S. military aircraft, helicopters, and vessels are giving the highest priority to the shipment of water. Over the past several days, JTF-Haiti has distributed more than 600,000 bottles of water and more than 400,000 meals/humanitarian rations. The USS Carl Vinson is producing 100,000 gallons of potable water daily. Water tanks are being installed in each zone of the city and potable water is now available at 45 distribution points. The U.S. Coast Guard has distributed a total of 38.5 tons of water (62,880 bottles). And USAID/OFDA has delivered 9 water treatment units to provide 900,000 liters of safe drinking water for 90,000 people per day.
o
More than 238,000 meals/humanitarian rations and 400,000 bottles of water were delivered yesterday alone.
o
The Crowley vessel Maracajam arrived in the Dominican Republic yesterday with more than 60,000 meals/humanitarian rations and water for the WFP.
o
The USNS Lummus, capable of producing 94,000 gallons of potable water, is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.
* USAID/FFP has contributed food assistance worth $68 million.
* To date, International Organization for Migration (IOM) has delivered 240,600 water purification tablets for household use, 3,300 water containers, and 1,920 hygiene kits (funded by USAID/OFDA) to several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.
* Today, World Vision, in partnership with USAID, started distribution of 2,000 metric tons of Food for Peace (FFP) commodities. The commodities will meet the immediate food needs of 18,670 families, or approximately 93,350 individuals, in Petion Ville, Delmas, and Port-au-Prince.
* Yesterday, a USAID/OFDA-funded flight carrying emergency relief supplies arrived in Port-au-Prince. Commodities included equipment to maintain a field hospital, including a trauma kit and air-conditioning unit. This is in addition to the water treatment units, ten-liter water containers, hygiene kits, rolls of plastic sheeting, and water bladders provided in recent days.

ADOPTIONS & ORPHANS

*
Yesterday, Secretary Clinton announced that the State Department is heading up a joint task force with the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to focus on orphans and unaccompanied minors, to streamline the process of adoptions, and to ensure that these families are united as quickly as possible while still ensuring that proper safeguards are in place to protect children in our care. An interagency working group has been established to focus on the humanitarian needs of highly vulnerable children. And the Administration is also working closely with the many Members of Congress who are understandably very concerned about this process.
*
On Monday, Secretary Napolitano announced humanitarian parole for certain Haitian orphans. We remain focused on family reunification and must be vigilant not to separate children from relatives in Haiti who are still alive but displaced, or to unknowingly assist criminals who traffic in children in such desperate times. To do so, we strongly discourage the use of private aircraft to evacuate orphans. All flights must be appropriately coordinated with the U.S. and Haitian governments to ensure proper clearances are granted before arrival in the United States.

ASSISTANCE

*
As of January 20, USAID had contributed $90 million to the U.N. appeal, including $22 million in non-food assistance and $68 million in food assistance. An additional $73.9 million in bilateral assistance for search-and-rescue and other assistance had also been committed as of December 20, bringing total USAID assistance to Haiti to nearly $165 million.

[nadinbrzezinski]

189. And Cite Soleil according to the ICRC

But I am sure you knew that

[frog92969]

83. Earthquake Frees Haitian Prisoners from Port-au-Prince Jail, 80% Never Charged with a Crime

Earthquake Frees Haitian Prisoners from Port-au-Prince Jail, 80% Never Charged with a Crime
democracynow.org


All the prisoners jailed at the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince escaped in the earthquake. We speak with leading Haitian human rights attorney Mario Joseph, who says 80 percent of all prisoners in Haiti were not charged with a crime. We also speak with Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health about the issue of prisons.


http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/21/earthquake_frees_haitian_prisoners_from_port

[PufPuf23]

92. Another perspective.

"Caracas, January 20th, 2009 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela has stepped up its aid effort to Haiti as a second earthquake rocked the Caribbean country again today. This follows a 7.3 magnitude earthquake which destroyed the Haitian capital, port-au-Prince last week leaving at least 75,000 people confirmed dead, 250,000 injured and millions homeless.
Echoing his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega, who accused the United States of “manipulating the tragedy to install North American troops in Haiti” and French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet who criticised the US role in Haiti, saying the priority was “helping Haiti, not occupying Haiti,” Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez also questioned the US military response to the disaster.

snip

So far Venezuela has sent 616 metric tons of food aid and 116 metric tons of equipment, including water purification systems, electrical generators and heavy equipment for moving rubble.

Venezuela, the largest oil exporter in South America, is also sending free fuel to the devastated country, with Chavez pledging “The Venezuelan people will donate all the fuel the Haitian people need.” The fuel will be used to operate power plants and public transportation. “We are coordinating with the president of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernández, who put the terminal of the refinery of his country at our service,” The Venezuelan president continued. A tanker with 225 000 barrels (worth approximately US$18 million) of diesel fuel and gasoline departed from Venezuela on Sunday.

snip


http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/5086

[TxRider]

109. And another perspective...

On January 12, a massive earthquake struck the nation of Haiti, causing catastrophic damage inside and around the capital city of Port-au-Prince. President Obama has said, “at this moment, we are moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history -- to save lives and to deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe. In these difficult hours, America stands united. We stand united with the people of Haiti, who have shown such incredible resilience, and we will help them to recover and to rebuild.”

The United States Government has mobilized resources and people to aid in the relief effort. At the direction of President Obama, this is a whole-of-government effort, and USAID has the lead in this swift, aggressive and coordinated response. Military personnel are playing an indispensable role in supporting this humanitarian effort, including making the logistics chain possible and distributing life-saving assistance. Aid workers are working around the clock to deliver more aid more quickly and more effectively to more people in need.

Below, please find some key facts and examples of government actions to date. All numbers below are current as of 3 p.m., Thursday, January 21.

INTERNATIONAL COORDINATION

At the request of the Haitian government, the U.S. continues to coordinate America’s relief efforts with the United Nations and the international community. We are coordinating closely with more than 30 nations and hundreds of NGOs to deliver food and water quickly throughout the country.

*
Secretary of State Clinton discussed Haiti with UK Foreign Secretary Miliband and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Catherine Ashton, earlier today in Washington. The Secretary stressed the vital partnership underway in Haiti, with the U.S. and EU countries working side by side on relief and rescue operations, and the need for a “coordinated, integrated, international response to the reconstruction and the return of prosperity and opportunity to Haiti.”
*
At the United Nations, the U.S. Deputy Ambassador, Alejandro Wolff, addressed the UN press corps to draw attention to the broad international character of the rescue and relief effort in Haiti. Held just before another pledging round for the UN Flash Appeal, Ambassador Wolff was joined by UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes and the Ambassadors from Haiti, Brazil, Canada, France and Uruguay.

HEALTH/MEDICAL

*
• Yesterday, the hospital ship USNS Comfort started receiving injured patients from the local hospitals and international medical facilities. The Comfort has a crew of 850 to provide a host of medical services, and will eventually provide nearly 1,000 hospital beds, and 11 operating rooms.
o
The USNS Comfort has treated more than 230 patients received from 10 hospital sites already.
*
• As of January 21, more than 7,000 patients have been treated by the 5 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) from the Department of Health and Human Services and one International Medical Surgical Team (IMSuRT) in Haiti (all funded by USAID/OFDA). These teams treated 2,160 patients on January 20.
o
Each DMAT has 35 staff members and 40 beds and functions as a field emergency room, while the IMSuRT has 50 staff members and 35 beds and performs disaster surgery.

AIRPORTS & PORTS

*
The airport in Port au Prince is open around the clock. The U.S. Air Force continues to manage air operations at the request of the Haitian Government. And the State Department continues to coordinate closely with our international partners and NGOs to facilitate the smooth arrival of aid and personnel. This is a consultative process with the government of Haiti and the UN involving dozens of international assistance flights, beyond U.S. civilian and military flights.
o
On January 20, 153 flights arrived (38 of those were official U.S. flights).
o
For example, of the 330 arrivals from January 16 - 18, approximately half were civilian/humanitarian, and less than 30% were military:
+
155 were civilian aircraft,
+
91 from U.S. military and government aircraft, and
+
84 from international governments and militaries – the proportion of international flights is rising.
+
On 1/18, flights landed from: Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, France, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United States, Ukraine, and from the United Nations and numerous international aid organizations such as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the World Food Program (WFP).
+
The WFP has placed a coordination cell at the airport in Haiti to assist with the prioritization of flights and the movement of humanitarian assistance through the airport to areas of need in Haiti.
o
The port is beginning to receive some ships and is about 30% operational. The port at Jacmel, southwest of Port-au-Prince is currently operational during daylight for certain vessels. U.S. Army/Navy dive teams with underwater construction teams continued to assess port structural damage.
*
U.S. Transportation Command reports that since commencing air operations, a total of 160 missions have been flown that have carried more than 2,600 tons of relief supplies and more than 2,500 military and relief personnel into Haiti.

SAFETY & SECURITY

*
As of January 21, approximately 13,000 military personnel (10,000 afloat and 3,000 ashore) are a part of the relief effort.
o
The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) continues to provide assistance in support of Leogane and Petit Goave. They currently have 356 Marines ashore.
o
The remaining assets from 2/82 Brigade Combat Team and equipment will complete deployment to Port-au-Prince by January 22. They currently have 3,062 soldiers on ground.
*
As of January 21 there are 20 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships, 63 helicopters, and 204 vehicles in the joint operations area.
o
The U.S. Coast Guard has 12 aircraft operating in Haiti:
+
Five C-130 airplanes
+
One C-144 airplane
+
Three H-65 helicopters
+
Three H-60 helicopters
o
The U.S. Coast Guard has 6 vessels:
+
Coast Guard Cutter Valiant
+
Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma
+
Coast Guard Cutter Forward
+
Coast Guard Cutter Oak
+
Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton
+
Coast Guard Cutter Legare
+
Additionally, the Coast Guard has 3 vessels in the Florida Straits to support any tasking related to Haiti relief efforts: Coast Guard Cutters Alert, Dependable, and Venturous.
o
The U.S. Coast Guard has 801 service members on site assisting with recovery:
+
26 ashore,
+
719 afloat,
+
56 aircrew.
*
SOUTHCOM funded and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) contracted for the purchase of 50,000 hand held radios to distribute to the Haitian people.
o
As of the last night, 43,800 radios had arrived in Port-au-Prince. The remaining 6,200 radios are slated for delivery to Special Operations Command South by January 25 and flow into Haiti thereafter
o
The Military Information Support Team (MIST) in coordination with USAID will begin distribution of these radios immediately. 60,000 stickers, with the frequencies on them, and 60,000 hand bills that demonstrate (with pictures) how to operate the radio will be distributed with the radios.
o
This hand held radio initiative is part of an overall effort to reach the people of Haiti via FM/AM broadcasting of VOA programming and CJTF Haiti public service announcements.

EVACUATION & RESCUES

*
The U.S. government continues evacuations from Haiti around the clock. The total number of people evacuated from Haiti by the U.S. is approximately 10,500, of which 8,300 were American citizens. More than 1,100 Americans have been evacuated today, as of 3 p.m.
*
Search and Rescue: Currently, 43 international USAR teams, comprised of 1,739 rescue workers, with 161 dogs, are working in Haiti. 6 of those teams are from the United States – with 511 rescue workers from Fairfax County, Los Angeles County, Miami, Miami-Dade, Virginia Beach, and New York.
o
USAID/OFDA has provided more than $36 million in support of U.S. USAR teams deployed to Haiti to date.
o
U.S. USAR teams are currently conducting secondary reconnaissance missions throughout Port-au-Prince following the aftershock yesterday.

FOOD & WATER

*
C-17 air delivery of food and water resumed today -- 14,000 water bottles and 14,500 MREs/Humanitarian Rations were slated for delivery. The drop zone is in the vicinity of Mirebalais, about 25 miles northeast of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. A MINUSTAH battalion secured the site.
*
U.S. military aircraft, helicopters, and vessels are giving the highest priority to the shipment of water. Over the past several days, JTF-Haiti has distributed more than 600,000 bottles of water and more than 400,000 meals/humanitarian rations. The USS Carl Vinson is producing 100,000 gallons of potable water daily. Water tanks are being installed in each zone of the city and potable water is now available at 45 distribution points. The U.S. Coast Guard has distributed a total of 38.5 tons of water (62,880 bottles). And USAID/OFDA has delivered 9 water treatment units to provide 900,000 liters of safe drinking water for 90,000 people per day.
o
More than 238,000 meals/humanitarian rations and 400,000 bottles of water were delivered yesterday alone.
o
The Crowley vessel Maracajam arrived in the Dominican Republic yesterday with more than 60,000 meals/humanitarian rations and water for the WFP.
o
The USNS Lummus, capable of producing 94,000 gallons of potable water, is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.
* USAID/FFP has contributed food assistance worth $68 million.
* To date, International Organization for Migration (IOM) has delivered 240,600 water purification tablets for household use, 3,300 water containers, and 1,920 hygiene kits (funded by USAID/OFDA) to several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.
* Today, World Vision, in partnership with USAID, started distribution of 2,000 metric tons of Food for Peace (FFP) commodities. The commodities will meet the immediate food needs of 18,670 families, or approximately 93,350 individuals, in Petion Ville, Delmas, and Port-au-Prince.
* Yesterday, a USAID/OFDA-funded flight carrying emergency relief supplies arrived in Port-au-Prince. Commodities included equipment to maintain a field hospital, including a trauma kit and air-conditioning unit. This is in addition to the water treatment units, ten-liter water containers, hygiene kits, rolls of plastic sheeting, and water bladders provided in recent days.

ADOPTIONS & ORPHANS

*
Yesterday, Secretary Clinton announced that the State Department is heading up a joint task force with the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to focus on orphans and unaccompanied minors, to streamline the process of adoptions, and to ensure that these families are united as quickly as possible while still ensuring that proper safeguards are in place to protect children in our care. An interagency working group has been established to focus on the humanitarian needs of highly vulnerable children. And the Administration is also working closely with the many Members of Congress who are understandably very concerned about this process.
*
On Monday, Secretary Napolitano announced humanitarian parole for certain Haitian orphans. We remain focused on family reunification and must be vigilant not to separate children from relatives in Haiti who are still alive but displaced, or to unknowingly assist criminals who traffic in children in such desperate times. To do so, we strongly discourage the use of private aircraft to evacuate orphans. All flights must be appropriately coordinated with the U.S. and Haitian governments to ensure proper clearances are granted before arrival in the United States.

ASSISTANCE

*
As of January 20, USAID had contributed $90 million to the U.N. appeal, including $22 million in non-food assistance and $68 million in food assistance. An additional $73.9 million in bilateral assistance for search-and-rescue and other assistance had also been committed as of December 20, bringing total USAID assistance to Haiti to nearly $165 million.

[PufPuf23]

117. IMO the contribution of the USA and use of our resources are outstanding.

But that politics are being played as well unfortunately.

I tend to believe that your summation and the Venezuela Analysis article are both true.

Venezuela acts in good faith too and substantially.

I want healthy and mutual relations with Venezuela (and Cuba and other Latin American nations) rather than militarization that the USA seeds.

[EFerrari]

161. Thank you for posting the State Deparment press release. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

200. Will the ICRC one help?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7549147

[apocalypsehow]

202. Over and over and over again in this thread different posters have proven you wrong on a multitude

of facts.

What is your answer when all of your factual errors are pointed out to you? Did you apologize for being wrong, say, on the Cuban field hospital above and thank the poster who pointed it out to you for correcting your error?

Nope: you skip off to argue with someone else, and ignore the sub-thread you were previously engaged in entirely.

That does little to boost your credibility, know it? In fact, it shreds it. I'd start over from the beginning, were I you.

[EFerrari]

207. Well, no. What factual errors?

And I didn't skip out anywhere.

Try again. My position is that MSF is right. The US prioritized security forces over humanitarian aid in the first crucial hours and days.

And you are free to start anywhere you like. Thanks.

[TxRider]

238. Well lets see

We can start with your claim of 16000 armed troops on the ground before a drop of water was delivered.

First, even now there aren't 16000 troops, 10,000 of that number are sailors on the ships off the coast.

Second, they delivered what they had from the ships on arrival, and started ferrying supplies from Guantanamo within 24hrs by helicopter. Withing days salvage ships were on hand repairing the port.


Next we can talk about the very few troops flown in, who brought radio gear and equipment necessary to actually operate an airport, and started air traffic control so the airport could operate at maximum efficiency.

Then we can talk about you saying the Cubans showed up on day one, when they didn't. They had been there for weeks on a humanitarian medical mission. They rode out the quake.

Then we can talk about militarization, when all that was happening was a small number of troops, assessing the damage and where supplies were needed and plotting distribution points and planning out where aid was needed, what type, and how to get it there.

The question isn't where are your factual errors, but whether you related any facts whatsoever.

[nadinbrzezinski]

250. Let me add a few

Brazil has no longer command of hte UN Mission, still need to see that they lost that command. And you'd think MINUSTAH would have posted that by now, given they have posted dead and wounded.

This is a US operation

Well there is the UN Component and how many NGOS and Rescue groups from around the world?

Nobody is distributing things... well I get tired of posting the UN Food Program morning briefing and the ICRC OpReports every day... mostly they contradict this.

This is the US... no it is an international effort...

Disaster Capitalism... well IMF and WB have suspended the debt and even Naomi Wolf has pointed this short circuits Disaster Capitalism.

I could go on.

There is a reason why the FEARS are there and justified... but this is not fitting what we should expect.

[tammywammy]

257. But that's not what Amy Goodman said, so you're lying.

:)

[nadinbrzezinski]

259. I respect Amy and others in the indie media

but like everybody else in disasters they push agendas... so it takes a lot of work to find out what is actually going on.

Also what they see as ... they did not let me in because it's personal! It may just be general policy and Orders of the Day.

Lord knows I've kicked a few reporters from scenes myself for valid reasons, including keeping their skins in their bodies.

[tammywammy]

265. I'm thankful for your posts on here

Having someone that's BEEN there in disaster areas helping educate all of us. I appreciate your posts with updates on what's going on on the ground down in Haiti. Very informative. I don't watch cable news, I have the channels, but I find myself to be a happier person when I'm NOT inundated with constant news/opinion/something to be outraged about all day.

I trust what the International Red Cross says is going on way more than Doctors without Borders. I've been a big DWB fan for years, always donating to them, but this time I decided to make my donations towards the Red Cross instead.

I know some should be common sense, but there's always a few people lacking that in the world. :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

267. This is why DWB did what they did

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7550826

That is marketing 101. The Lancet called them on it today... but I smelled it a week ago.

And truth be told, somebody else will NEXT time.

[tammywammy]

272. Thanks for the link

And you know, while it sounds cruel (they're using this to raise money) it does make sense.

Do you have a link to the Lancet article as well, I'm interested in reading it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

274. Here you go

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/haiti-aid-distribution-confusion-warning

And this is part of the "game" and it has become to a point a bidness.

[EFerrari]

254. Fine.

We can start with your claim of 16000 armed troops on the ground before a drop of water was delivered.
_

Reread what I actually said.

---------

First, even now there aren't 16000 troops, 10,000 of that number are sailors on the ships off the coast.

Second, they delivered what they had from the ships on arrival, and started ferrying supplies from Guantanamo within 24hrs by helicopter. Withing days salvage ships were on hand repairing the port.

---------------

Right. But somehow all of this effort couldn't find the biggest hospital in Haiti until THURSDAY.

---------------


Next we can talk about the very few troops flown in, who brought radio gear and equipment necessary to actually operate an airport, and started air traffic control so the airport could operate at maximum efficiency.

---------
I never said a word about these people. OT.

---------

Then we can talk about you saying the Cubans showed up on day one, when they didn't. They had been there for weeks on a humanitarian medical mission. They rode out the quake.

-------

I've posted multiple times that the Cubans were ALREADY THERE which is why they could set up the day following the earthquake. Reading FAIL.
-----

Then we can talk about militarization, when all that was happening was a small number of troops, assessing the damage and where supplies were needed and plotting distribution points and planning out where aid was needed, what type, and how to get it there.

------

See Amy Goodman's reporting last week. See Thom Hartmann, Laura Flanders, Al Jazeera, even CNN. Yes, militarization. That's the word.

--------------

The question isn't where are your factual errors, but whether you related any facts whatsoever.

-----

The question is whether you'd recognize a fact if it fell on your head. I've been posting links to hard news all week. Yourself?

[TxRider]

277. Ahh

So now it other threads earlier in the week.

And yes I have been posting, hard news, like arrival of individual ships, port repair progress etc.

Here's the first ships to arrive.... Late last Thursday the 14th



" About 15 helicopter flights launched from the carrier's deck on Friday, dropping goods into Haiti. Helicopters were also making trips back and forth to Guantánamo Bay to pick up people and supplies. They took hundreds of cases of water and Gatorade the 10-mile hop to Port-au-Prince.

Branch said the choppers took supplies to six different sites on Friday. But he said the overall coordination isn't what it needs to be.

``Everyone is trying to help, everyone is trying to do their part,'' he said. ``I think it's fair to say the coordination hasn't come as far as it needs to do make this as efficient as possible.''

The Navy has distributed all of its supplies at the Port-au-Prince airport. Other groups have supplies, but have faced difficulties moving them into Haiti because of the destruction.

``There are supplies there under the control of other agencies who want to deliver those supplies themselves and they are stymied by lack of transportation on the ground,'' Branch said. ``Unless we can get that coordination to work, to allow the most efficient distribution to happen, we'll continue to have problems.''

More supplies were expected to be flown in from Guantánamo Bay on Saturday.

The carrier was off the coast of Norfolk, Va., when it got orders at around midnight Tuesday to head to the ravaged country. It had been at dry dock for the past four years getting a complete overhaul.

Traveling at about 32 knots, the nuclear-powered carrier slowed off the coast of Mayport, Fla., to pick up additional helicopters, and now has 19 onboard."




So here ya go, first people in delivered all the supplies they had, 3 days after the quake, including 100's of cases of water and started ferrying more supplies from Guantanamo.

Other than that the only troops there were coast guard and the 82nd fixing up the airport.

This information wasn't hidden, unless your scope of news is limited to a few reporters without clues.

More troops showed up later on amphibious assault ships with heavy equipment to clear roads, fix the port, and set up massive scale distribution.

After the "gunslingers" showed up at all the hospitals and terrorized the populace, they now have 48 distribution points, with water tanks, ferrying thousands of gallons of water from the ships offshore with desalinization plants and has successfully opened up ports, airfields and are doing a bang up job.

Amy Goodman doesn't have a clue, and is out of touch with reality on this.



Here is the General in charge, in the 15th.... 3 days after the quake.

"Our efforts continue to support the urban search-and-rescue and provide delivery of relief supplies.

We're continuing to work very closely with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti and providing international relief organizations and Haiti officials with the much needed help within the communities.

We continue to support and control the airport at -- the international airport there. We're able to support about 90 flights a day in and out of there. And we're following the priorities that the government of Haiti has set up to support that airlift capability going in there.

There are unmanned aerial aircraft, as well as manned aircraft, providing reconnaissance over Haiti so that we have a good feel for what the situation is there.

The U.S. Navy ship USS Carl Vinson, the Navy carrier, is 11 miles off the coast of Haiti with 19 helicopters embarked.

There are 18 nations participating in the relief effort, and there is a very close and a very coordinated effort amongst all the nations in providing support to Haiti.

Our assessment teams are hard at work. We're working across the country, as well as within the region, to figure out how best to provide support to Haiti.

As you understand, the piers and the port capability has been determined to be unserviceable. We're bringing in an underwater survey team to survey the piers to understand how much damage was done to that and understand how much construction we'll have to do in the future.

We're also very fully committed and working very, very diligently to bring all the support capabilities, all the capabilities of the United States government, to support Haiti. I've been very impressed throughout this situation, from my own standpoint, from my experience over many years in the United States Air Force, with the support that we're receiving from the Department of Defense, the coordination that's happening within the United States government to provide all the support and capability and capacity of the United States government to support the citizens of Haiti."



He takes questions....

"Is security in the streets a concern right now?

GEN. FRASER: What I'm told is the security situation in the city and in the country remains calm. The United Nations mission, MINUSTAH, has been providing that security for a number of years. They continue to provide that security, and the situation remains calm."


"Can you just tell us -- I mean, are you disappointed and sort of surprised by how long it's taking to get the supplies in? Is that what you expected when you first heard the news of the earthquake? Did you think it was going to be this hard?

GEN. FRASER: I expected it to be at least this hard when we first heard about it. That's why as soon as we got news of an earthquake -- because I'd visited Haiti about three months ago, so I had an understanding of what the situation was like.

And we knew that there was a single airfield where we could use capacity. We had a limited capacity, even when the port was running, of what the port could support. But it was a pretty significant earthquake. And so we expected that we were going to have really challenged from an infrastructure. So we started moving ships almost immediately after we found out that there was a catastrophe in Haiti.

And so we've been working all along to try and expand our capability, realizing that the infrastructure was going to be challenging and that we needed to get as much capability and as much flexibility as we could to the region to support the supply."

[EFerrari]

279. But no medical people. Nothing not generated by the Pentagon.

Gotcha.

[TxRider]

284. What medical person do you want?

CNN's doctor Gupta was flown out to the carrier to operate on a kid with a critical head injury for crying out loud.

Here's NPR from the 17th...

"NPR's Carrie Kahn reports that since the U.S. military has taken over air-traffic control at the airport, planes are landing and unloading more quickly and more efficiently than in the first days. Kahn says officials are still contending with the problem of getting that material out of the airport and into the city, where many streets are blocked by debris."




Here's your gunslingers, the Marines, the day they landed on the 19th.

"Approximately 125 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit came ashore near Leogane, Haiti Jan. 19 beginning relief operations in a pasture that is now being used as a landing zone for helicopters loaded with supplies.

The Marines launched from the USS Bataan aboard CH-53E Super Stallion Helicopters and UH-1N Hueys, aircraft that are part of the MEU's Aviation Combat Element, Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 461 (Reinforced).

The Marines quickly established security in the landing zone which was the home to a handful of emaciated horses, who seemed unaware of the devastation that had occurred only one week before. The first helicopter touched down just before noon and shortly after, relief supplies began flowing. Collapsible water containers and bottled water were the first supplies delivered by the MEU. "



Boots on the ground before a drop of water just didn't happen.

[TxRider]

287. Here's your militarization, it's an invasion I tell ya!

These are evil gunslingers on a mission to militarize and conquer a poor nation.. We should bring them home this instant!

[bridgit]

291. You're wasting your time. The 'death to america' contingent is only able to recognize the *image*...

Of militarism when they either choose to or it suits them

[EFerrari]

298. Nice strawman and you still didn't address my question.

And this is what the Marines looked like when they arrived at the General Hospital at PaP on WEDNESDAY.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/devastated_port_au_prince_hospital_struggles

[TxRider]

299. Funny

The doctor she interviewed said "we need crowd control".. and "This is a disaster area and warm bodies help"...

That they had just spoken with the operations person from the military and the military were helping the hospital secure the grounds.

He didn't sound at all displeased about them showing up to help.


My question, why didn't Amy go interview the military operations officer and grill him about supply delivery?

Try to egg on some supplies getting there quicker?

You know be productive and make difference rather than postulate about militarization and occupation?

[bridgit]

300. Why didn't Amy go interview the military ops officer & grill him about supply delivery?

Because Amy just got there herself days upon days later and didn't know which way to turn in that she had little other mission statement than to capture pics & bylines of already squalid, tear-filled conditions and blame them on the US while postulating about US militarization & occupation, so?

Well, so she walks right up to a young US 'military guy' and starts asking him from within her veiled sarcasm & contempt about his "tripod" (a less than veiled allusion to sniper activity and assassination) big gun and bullets

Amy does just fine. She's a wonderful human being, and, perhaps in spite of her protestations: a wonderful American utilizing her various inalienable rights to those extents she is able. I'm also glad to see she brought her Democracy-Now cap & gear as that remains important in a world predicated upon corporate image; khaki military-like vest - always a plus when sidling up next *to* the military and their squalid tripods

However...

Sadly, currently, Socialists at wsws.org, here at DU and elsewhere - are using the Haitians as wedges against all things US. Topics regarding the region in general have less to do with 'democracy' now than they do Socialism-Now! And here they come: the apologists for all things South American Socialism, and the Death To All Things US DUers

[TxRider]

306. Now read how Goodman's tripe is killing people.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bal-md.hs.comfort23jan23,0,6741033.story

"But Friday did not turn out to be a day of humanitarian medicine for the Comfort's Rapid Assessment Team; it brought only frustration and wasted time. By day's end, stymied by logistical problems at every turn, the team had yet to send a patient to the ship. And the impact was palpable: The Comfort, which treated 102 patients Thursday, treated only 69 Friday."

"The team had touched down by helicopter at 7:30 a.m. on the same palace lawn from which at least 60 patients had been flown to the Comfort on Thursday. But Sharpe had taken only a few steps from the helicopter when an Army officer told him that the landing zone was closed until 11 a.m."

"But at the palace gates, they met an Army officer who told them it hadn't been the United Nations that shut down the landing zone, but a general. The officer, an aide to Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, said the general ordered U.S. military helicopters to stop landing at the palace out of concern that Haitians would think the Americans were taking over."


This is the kind of damage irresponsible tripe like proclaiming America is invading to occupy causes.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

290. Again, with this hospital claim.

American volunteers arrived at this hospital on Friday, April 15th, three days after the quake struck. They had some supplies with them (though the amount proved far from adequate). When they arrived, they found the hospital abandoned - no staff anywhere to be found, so they reopened the hospital themselves and made due with what they had. It's far from an ideal but it's also far from your claim that it took Americans eight days to find the largest hospital in the area.

[Merchant Marine]

204. So much for your "16,000 gunmen" meme

As of January 21, approximately 13,000 military personnel (10,000 afloat and 3,000 ashore) are a part of the relief effort.

10,000 afloat- sailors, airmen, navy doctors and MSC contracted mariners, not marines with guns.

Will you admit your dishonesty or continue to slander my brother mariners?

[nadinbrzezinski]

191. Thanks for pointint out this is a WORLD WIDE EFFORT

Mexico sent two Navy Ships, rescue teams, desalinization plants... I could go on

Canada has 1000 ugly troops on the ground as well as DART teams...

I could go on. The list of help, INTERNATIONAL help is impressive.

[suzie]

294. I think we should all thank all the Nadia B's who have done this work in the past.

And who are there doing it now.

The news media types who swarm in to make names for themselves, not so much.

[Merchant Marine]

158. You know nobody said we were invading the south pacific after the tsunami...

http://marine-money.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Haiti%20Maritime%20Support.pdf

The US has provided more logistical support and aid than the rest of the world combined. We're trying to help these people, and our military is the best tool because of its airlift and sealift capability and unique skills that are a result of many years of humanitarian aid missions.

As for security, any commander is going to be concerned about liability. The first NGO aid worker that gets hurt or killed is going to generate a shitstorm of anti-military media backlash.

[EFerrari]

281. What a pantload.

Don't you guys get dizzy from spinning so much?

The US took control of Haiti and they are setting the rules. So this "we did more than anyone else" stuff is bullshit because we excluded others from doing.

And the rest of your post is something from a recruiting pamphlet. Please. We're adults here.

[amborin]

162. sorry, duplicate post

[amborin]

163. article: White House launched massive PR campaign to look competent on Haiti:

"a remarkable public relations campaign, the White House released a three-page “ticktock,” a newspaper term of art for a minute-by-minute reconstruction of how momentous events unfolded.

The release included a link to a Flickr photo of a meeting on Haiti the next day in the Situation Room, presided over by Mr. Obama, as well as a list of foreign leaders he had telephoned. (At 2:23 p.m. on Jan. 13, for example, he placed a call to President Felipe Calderón of Mexico.)

The ticktock was one of a torrent of news releases, briefings, fact sheets and statements that flowed out of the White House in the days after the earthquake, a media campaign that illustrates two truths about the Obama administration: its deftness at catering to a nonstop, Internet- and cable-television-driven news cycle, and its determination to project competence and resolve in dealing with a heartbreaking tragedy, in implicit contrast to the way the Bush administration struggled through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

snip

They have left little to chance. In addition to the daily e-mail messages and briefings, White House officials have sent reporters a video of American search teams rescuing a Haitian woman from a collapsed building, while a crowd gathered and chanted, “U.S.A.!”

“We’re out there and aggressive,” said Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman who was dispatched to Port-au-Prince by Mr. Obama to help manage the public relations campaign.

There is some evidence that the campaign is working. The Associated Press and The Washington Post reported details from the ticktock in articles that spoke of Mr. Obama’s resolve to help Haiti and avoid a repeat of the dilatory White House response to Hurricane Katrina. (It is no surprise that the White House understands the importance of the ticktock, given that news organizations publish such articles after major events or decisions and knock on the doors of officials for the minute-by-minute details.)

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22prexy.html?scp=5&sq=obama%20haiti&st=cse

[apocalypsehow]

201. Another UnRec for a massive pile of poop. n/t.

[Kaleva]

203. unrecced.

[alarimer]

210. Another article from Slate saying basically the same thing

http://www.slate.com/id/2242078/

y the weekend, it was clear that something perverse was going on in Haiti, something savage and bestial in its lack of concern for human life. I'm not talking about the earthquake, and certainly not about the so-called "looting," which I prefer to think of as the autonomously organized distribution of unjustly hoarded goods. I'm talking about the U.S. relief effort.

For two days after the quake, despite almost unimaginable destruction, there were reasons to be optimistic. With a few notable exceptions—Pat Robertson and David Brooks among them—Americans reacted with extraordinary and unhesitating generosity of spirit and of purse. Port-au-Prince is not much farther from Washington, D.C., than, say, New Orleans, and the current president of the United States, unlike his predecessor, was quick to react to catastrophe. Taking advantage of "our unique capacity to project power around the world," President Barack Obama pledged abundant aid and 10,000 troops.

SNIP

he much-feared descent into anarchy stubbornly refused to materialize. "It is calm at this time," Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command, admitted to the AP on Monday. "Those who live and work here … tell me that the level of violence that we see right now is below pre-earthquake levels." He announced that four—four, in a city of more than 2 million—aid-distribution points had been set up on the sixth day of the crisis.

So what happened? Why the mad rush to command and control, with all its ultimately murderous consequences? Why the paranoid focus on security above saving lives? Clearly, President Obama failed to learn one of the basic lessons taught by Hurricane Katrina: You can't solve a humanitarian problem by throwing guns at it. Before the president had finished insisting that "my national security team understands that I will not put up with any excuses," Haiti's fate was sealed. National security teams prioritize national security, an amorphous and expensive notion that has little to do with keeping Haitian citizens alive.

[amborin]

214. Drs W/O Borders: Cargo Plane W/ 12 Tons Supplies turned away 3x:

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/01/19-20

"January 19 - A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cargo plane carrying 12 tons of medical equipment, including drugs, surgical supplies and two dialysis machines, was turned away three times from Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday night despite repeated assurances of its ability to land there. This 12-ton cargo was part of the contents of an earlier plane carrying a total of 40 tons of supplies that was blocked from landing on Sunday morning. Since January 14, MSF has had five planes diverted from the original destination of Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic. These planes carried a total of 85 tons of medical and relief supplies.

"We have had five patients in Martissant health center die for lack of the medical supplies that this plane was carrying," said Loris de Filippi, emergency coordinator for the MSF's Choscal Hospital in Cite Soleil. "I have never seen anything like this. Any time I leave the operating theater I see lots of people desperately asking to be taken for surgery. Today, there are 12 people who need lifesaving amputations at Choscal Hospital. We were forced to buy a saw in the market to continue amputations. We are running against time here."

snip

"It is like working in a war situation," said Rosa Crestani, MSF medical coordinator for Choscal Hospital. "We don't have any more morphine to manage pain for our patients. We cannot accept that planes carrying lifesaving medical supplies and equipment continue to be turned away while our patients die. Priority must be given to medical supplies entering the country."

Many of the patients have been pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings are at grave risk of death from septicemia and the consequences of "crush syndrome," a condition where damaged muscle tissue releases toxins into the bloodstream and can lead to death from kidney failure. Dialysis machines are vital to keeping patients alive with this condition.

snip

[nadinbrzezinski]

221. Let me see

ICRC had to truck one Field hospital in from the DR, as well as some of its logistics support... they had this issue of slots, airport and all that. Not screaming to the press, OpReport, and they left it at that.

The UK had one team diverted to DR, for the same reason

Spain had a couple planes diverted for the same reason

So did Mexico...

Top of list...

NOT JUST DWB had planes diverted, there was this little issue about LANDING SLOTS and space on the ground.

I know that people at times cannot get this, but I, nor anybody else, can change the laws of physics.

Oh and DWB has behaved like an a aggrieved child in a disaster zone... and THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER. It's not like this is their first dance.

[TxRider]

224. Anyone with common sense would ask

Some of their planes were diverted, true.

But what was on the planes that landed instead of them?

Doctors? Search and rescue teams? Water? Food? Fuel for aircraft to refuel?

Unfortunately there was only one runway, it's not like no other planes were landing and only so many can land in a day.

[itsrobert]

241. Anyone who believes this crap

Is a dumbass.

[truth2power]

275. Hello. Dumbass, here...

I assume "this crap" refers to the OP. Let's see...

"Partners in Health"...

"Partners in Health has worked in Haiti for more than 20 years. Its co-founder, Dr. Paul Farmer, is the deputy United Nations envoy to Haiti and a senior professor of public health at Harvard University."

"The New York Times Thursday quoted Dr. Eduardo de Marchena, a University of Miami cardiologist overseeing one field hospital in Haiti, who provided a similarly grim prognosis." (Hmm, someone on the ground)

"The Wall Street Journalreported that the Port-au-Prince General Hospital is continuously besieged by more than 1,000 patients waiting for surgery." (What? The Wall Street Journal???)

"CNN’s Karl Penhaul reported from Port-au-Prince General Hospital, where US paratroopers have taken up positions. He said that Haitians questioned why so many US troops were pouring into the country. “They say they need more food and water and fewer guys with guns,” he reported." (CNN? On the ground?)

"He <Penhaul> also indicated that American doctors at the hospital seemed mystified by the military presence."

"The Spanish daily El País quoted one of these American doctors, Jim Warsinguer:..."

"... said Doctors Without Borders deputy operations manager Greg Elder." (Sounds like this guy is 'on the ground', too. And who the hell is Doctors Without Borders? Some fly-by-night outfit, I'll bet.)

"reporters on the ground have said"... (Yikes! More of those guys on the ground. Getting crowded.)

" The British Broadcasting Corporation reported Thursday"...

"but the BBC’s Adam Mynott in Port-au-Prince says".... (IN Port-au-Prince?)

But, not to worry. William Kristol has everything under control. " Similarly, William Kristol and Thomas Donnelly, writing in the Weekly Standard, argued that beyond the humanitarian pretext for intervening in Haiti, “the strategic case is also compelling.” " Whatever could he mean? "strategic case".


So....ALL of these individuals and organizations lack credibility. mmmmmkay. Sure, there's some editorializing in that article, but damn little compared to sourcing to reliable organizations.

Why not address, specifically, the issues you have with this article?

[ShortnFiery]

329. Yes, and although our whorish M$M is not reporting this EuroNews and France24 are

providing FULL coverage.

http://www.euronews.net/2010/01/24/what-is-america-s-role-in-haiti/

[bridgit]

253. It projects neither barbarism or fear, imo what it projects, in the aggregate...

Is a misunderstanding, or disregard for the logistics and heavy lifting of emergency operations - on the fly, in response to catastrophic calamity - in favor of politically opportunistic, histrionic posturing imo on the part of wsws.org and others. The links back to the NYT, WSJ, CNN, BBC, El País to include the shock & awe of William Kristol and Thomas Donnelly are cover, a counterbalance to the greater charge of unbridled US Empire stomping round the idyllic Caribbean like Bam Bam or the Jolly Green Giant already quilted by Hugo Chavez which I did find curious in that the article didn't mention HAARP :shrug:

But thanks for the OP, I pretty much get my wsws.org daily suggested intake here at DU so that works :thumbsup:

[backscatter712]

255. World Socialist Web Site. This is fringer Marxist garbage.

Call back when you find an article from someone reputable.

[PacerLJ35]

276. What our guys and gals are doing towards this "military intervention"...video and pics...

C-17 food/water airdrop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4VO_E-4P_s

C-130J from my base going to Haiti:

http://www.af.mil/photos/slideshow.asp?id={C9F47345-FE44-402B-AC14-4960FB65777F}

Photos of the USAF end of the effort:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/sets/72157623087518481/

USCG HC-130H loading up supplies for another run down to Haiti:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywa5DKrKKmk

One of several USAF Pararescue search teams looking for survivors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V11U4bhNUM

USAF/USCG C-130 crews taking evacuees to Homestead ARB:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pohAKr1pAY&feature=channel

Looks like pretty nefarious stuff to me...

[EFerrari]

280. And you're conflating people with policy. But you know that.

:)

[PacerLJ35]

282. And you're concentrating on such minor points that you're missing the bigger picture

OK, so you saw a story about Marines showing up at a hospital with (unloaded) guns. You focus on a story about a small handful of flights that have been diverted (out of hundreds of non-US military flights that make it in, including some MSF flights).

But you miss the picture...the military is NOT there to establish imperial aims. They are not out bullying people around the streets with guns. They are not hording supplies at the airport and refusing the distribute it.

They are simply trying to do the right thing. Everyone I know who has gone down there has gone down there with the intent to help. No orders to take any city, or otherwise takeover the country. You fail to realize that these people, helping as they are, ARE the policy...they are the execution end of whatever policy is put forth. If the policy was to takeover Haiti, that's what the people in the videos and photos would be doing. You act as if there was some disconnect between the people on the ground and the decision makers. There is no such disconnect, because everything and anything our guys do, they do while carrying out a finely detailed plan...a plan that is obviously constantly being adjusted for the conditions, but a plan that was created at the higher levels of leadership.

Your posts and assertions are an insult to the thousands of US military personnel that are working around the clock, tirelessly, to try and do something for those people in Haiti. The vast majority of those on the ground are support personnel...not infantry or combat-coded troops. Stop focusing on the few infantry Marines...they are in the vast minority and while they are there for security, that's not the primary thrust of the US effort.

[EFerrari]

283. No, I'm not missing the big picture in any way.

And no, I am not insulting our service people. My dad is Navy and my grandfather was a general officer. I'd never insult my own blood.

And I also don't post talking points to DU.

:)

[nadinbrzezinski]

289. Actually you are the policy is humanitarian

and yes there is a history.

The BIG picture is that this works... this will CHANGE the US-Latin American Dynamic in ways that you cannot comprehend. Gringos go Home and Yankees go Home will be comfined to the dustbin.

It does not... well then, that is another story.

[dgibby]

309. I'm a retired Navy Nurse,

and you're insulting the hell out of me. If I was your father, I'd disown you.

[EFerrari]

328. How can criticizing policy be insulting to YOU?

Maybe you should get your hats straight.

[PacerLJ35]

311. mmmmkay....could've fooled me

Great, your dad is Navy and grandfather was a GO. So that now makes things all fine. If your grandfather was a GO you should know better then. Sure, there are GO's that aren't great people, but most of those guys genuinely are trying to do the right thing, even when faced with bad situations.

Talking points...great. You act as though my opinions are some highly refined schtick that I rehearse. Perhaps you're too hardheaded to figure this out but my opinions and observations are the result of an 18 year career serving in two separate branches of the military...as an enlisted troop, a warrant officer and now a commissioned officer. I've been involved in quite a number of different events. I'm glad you can claim that your dad and grandfather being in the military gives you perspective but to me, simply claiming you're related to someone doesn't give you the same picture as actually doing it.

Throughout the history of our country, our military (and government) has been involved in many dubious events as well as many very noble events. I'd like to think that having someone as a forward-thinking progressive person like myself in the leadership ranks of our military, mentoring those who are the future of our military, would be a good thing. But you seem to think it's just about having "talking points"

[EFerrari]

327. Try browbeating someone who will put up with it.

:)

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

286. A hospital, which it turns out, had received aid prior to this event.

It arrived with the American volunteers who reopened it (the Haitian staff were missing).

[suzie]

293. I remember reading about the Marines elsewhere, that they are equpped

and trained to live among the people with less infrastructure than the regular Army. If you have a need for a security presence, since the local police were likely pretty devastated by the earthquake, wouldn't it make sense to send in a military group that can provide that AND live in post-earthquake conditions?

I've watched BBC News extensively since the quake. They've done a lot of interviews and a lot of reporting that seems opposite of that reported by Gupta and Goodman.

[PacerLJ35]

312. Let's also acknowledge the fact that the vast majority of the "troops on the ground" are support...

Most are not combat troops. I find it highly disingenuous of the press to film members of the USAF's 621st CRW deplaning, with helmets, weapons and body armor on, and referring to them as combat troops. The 621st CRW specializes in opening up ports, airports and logistics trails. They are one of the go-to units if you want to position and move stuff in a hurry. Their weapons, body armor and helmets were simply a formality...they ALWAYS deploy with those things because...well, you just never know (think Somalia). Rather than patrol the streets, those guys are working 16-18 hour days unloading airplanes and trying to find a way to get it out into the city and outlying areas....meanwhile, people like EFerrari are sitting behind their keyboards insulting their effort by implying the US isn't delivering any aid, or the US is turning away aid, etc.

I'm only glazing the surface, because we have special ops units helping pull survivors from the buildings...ships acting as emergency rooms...other ships acting as sea-borne supply stations for helicopter lifts...aircrews bringing in aid and leaving with evacuated Haitians...specialized Navy and Air Force teams working on opening the port, and opening the other airports...and yes, we even have a handful of soldiers that are there for a "just in case" security policy. But those guys are in the minority...even the infantry has been told to put down their weapons at times and make a human chain to offload water, food and other items from helicopters.

[Name removed]

316. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[browntyphoon]

317. If Haiti had an infrastructure of their own this wouldnt be an issue.

Look at the Domincan Republic, then look at Haiti.


A disaster like this would not have the same effect in DR as it did in Haiti and it is the fault of Haiti and her citizens.

[Merchant Marine]

318. Woah, man

From what I can tell Haiti's been screwed by the rest of the world for most of its existence. They've also had a bit of a dictator problem.

Blaming the poor on the streets for the fucked up leadership they've had no choice in is a bit of an asshole move.

[browntyphoon]

319. Sorry I didn't clarify

I agree. I was a little overboard.

The problem isn't the guy on the street it's been their govts over the years. They have depleted their natural resources. Squandered millions of dollars of foreign aid over decades, and left their country and people to rot.

[Dappleganger]

321. I'm sorry for the BS

in your statement. You try putting that earthquake in LA and see what kind of mayhem ensues.

[PacerLJ35]

320. Pictures and video of the US delivering food, aid in Haiti

I'm about tired of seeing individuals writing posts claiming that Venezuela has sent 600+ tons of aid while the US has only sent 90,000 lbs. I'm tired of the posts that claim (with only heresay) troops were the only priority of the aid mission. I'm sick of reading about how the US is sending only war material versus food/water. I'm fed up with the people that assert the US is keeping other international partners out of the mission. I'm also shaking my head that people think nearly all 16,000 US personnel involved in Haiti are simply marching through the streets, rifles in hand...but not helping the citizens or distributing aid. Please take a look at these photos and videos.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4VO_E-4P_s

Note...each one of those standard CDS bundles weighs around 1,700 lbs...and the C-17s have been dropping about 40 per pass. They've been doing this since January 18th. It took that long to find and secure a drop zone to avoid killing people on the ground and/or destabilizing buildings further by having a heavy CDS bundle land on it.

Video from Reuters on Jan. 19th airdrop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCf2G1HbGT0

Note that video states the US originally said no airdrops but reversed course. Friend of mine that works for AMC (Air Mobility Command) stated that airdrops were always considered but they weren't going to drop unless a drop zone was secured to avoid what has happened in the past...hungry people rushing the drop zone to get to the food first, and getting crushed by the bundles.

Photos of the Jan 23 airdrop:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/4298748027/in/s... /

Jan 21 airdrop:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/4296418497/in/s... /

Jan 23 C-130 2-ship formation airdrop being loaded:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/4298731547/in/s... /

Jan 23 C-130 2-ship formation airdrop being loaded...NOTE: I used to fly these airplanes...they are C-130H1s out of Dyess AFB, and I personally know some of the crews flying these missions:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/4298733521/in/s... /

Cargo yard at Homestead ARB in Florida...note the caption, which said the facility has loaded and shipped over 900,000 TONS of aid to Haiti...and that's just from Homestead (the above C-130/C-17 photos were loaded at Pope AFB in NC)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/4299489476/in/s... /

This is a picture of a JASDF (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) C-130H being loaded up for a flight into Haiti. Yes, appears we are elbowing other countries out (sarcasm):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/4299485998/in/s... /

US infantry troops loading a truck to take supplies downtown...oh, wait, I thought these guys were just running amok through downtown Port au Prince?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/4296206119/in/s... /

Food being loaded onto an MC-130H on early morning of Jan 14th...I thought only troops with guns were shipped in at the beginning?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/4276049441/in/s...

[Dappleganger]

322. K&R your post.

[PacerLJ35]

323. Sadly in another thread, someone else continues to miss the point despite the pics/videos

He stated that because the second video stated the US didn't start airdropping food aid until the 18th, that was proof positive that I was lying and he was right...that the US didn't deliver actual aid for some time.

Just to clarify for those with thick skulls...that video was talking about AIRDROPS specifically, not about delivering aid in general.