The UK's Telegraph reports on accusations coming from both the French government and internationally-renowned Swiss emergency relief charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders):
"This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti," [a French official]said.
Geneva-based charity Medecins Sans Frontieres backed his calls saying hundreds of lives were being put at risk as planes carrying vital medical supplies were being turned away by American air traffic controllers.
But US commanders insisted their forces' focus was on humanitarian work and last night agreed to prioritise aid arrivals to the airport over military flights, after the intervention of the UN....
Haiti was occupied by the US between 1915 and 1935, and historical sensitivities together with friction with other countries over the relief effort has made the Americans cautious about their role in the operation.
Here in America, some libertarians like Lew Rockwell share these suspicions of the US military's long-term motives for involvement. Rockwell commented: "Murray Rothbard didn’t call it the welfare-warfare state for nothing. It’s the social worker with a machine gun, or as Isabel Patterson put it so long ago, the humanitarian with a guillotine."
the reason more help is not thereis because of those nay sayers who start crap. The US military could have assault ships with landing craft, apc's and humvees distributing aid there right now! The problem is the opioninated idiots would claim they are there to invade and take over. It is true that the equipment would be the same as an invasion, but the effect would be lives saved. Opionins such as those stated here are costing lives!
I think that the US wants to help Haiti, but they just had a wrong approach on the matter, that's all. Haiti may have been occupied by the US in the past, but that won't happen again. Maybe people who want to help Haiti should think more about car donations and less about politics.
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