ABC Nightline for Wednesday: Failed Nation-Building (Haiti)

[Bozita]

 
Nightline Daily E-Mail
February 18, 2004


TONIGHT'S FOCUS: We sent troops in to restore the elected government and to try to rebuild the country. But today, the country is in chaos, violence is spreading, and the man who was supposed to lead the country into democracy has been less than democratic. The country is Haiti.

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I've been trying to think about what to say in today's email since yesterday, when we decided to cover Haiti today. I have been to Haiti many times, during the late '80's when it seemed that there was a coup every couple of months, and the last time when U.S. troops went in. Let me be honest here. It's not my favorite place. The people are some of the nicest in the world, and they live under crushing poverty, within sight of the huge mansions up in the hills, mansions owned by some of the people who have been looting the country for decades. It's a country that just doesn't work. And it is also a place of unspeakable violence. In a career of going to bad places at bad times, some of the worst things I have ever seen or experienced have happened in Haiti. I would be the first to admit that I don't understand what has gone wrong.

Ten years ago or so, the U.S. sent troops in to try to restore order. The generals who had taken over, and who had a fair amount of support in this country, were running a brutal regime. Opponents would disappear, their bodies found later and left for the animals, their families kept from recovering them. It was horrible. In a famous scene, a U.S. ship heading for Port-au-Prince turned back when a small mob appeared at the harbor. This was right after Somalia, and this country did not want another military problem. And let's be honest here. What mattered more than the human rights abuses, the poverty, the tragedy, was illegal immigration. Haitians were braving the ocean, and many of them died out there, to try to get to this country. So U.S. troops went in. This was going to be nation-building. But the troops have been gone for years, and the situation has deteriorated again.

ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman is in Haiti. A rebellion by opponents of the government has spread, the opposition controls many of Haiti's larger cities. The president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whom we restored to office, is under fire for being undemocratic. But this time Secretary of State Powell, who helped broker the deal for a peaceful invasion by U.S. troops, now says that he doesn't see foreign troops going in any time soon. The French have talked about sending troops, but we'll see. This time there seems to be no real appetite for any kind of intervention. Why? What has changed in the last decade? Ted will anchor tonight, and with the problems we are facing with nation-building in Iraq hanging over us, we'll look at what went wrong a lot closer to home. I hope you'll join us.

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington D.C. bureau

[Homer12]

1. This is one they'll try to put all the blame on Clinton

Without mentioning that when Bushco stole office that they stopped sending Hati the 1 and 1/2 million a year in aid.

[Bandit]

2. Isn't it amazing that Haiti was in near collapse when Clinton took office

and for eight straight years they did well and were getting their house in order. Then comes Bush* and everything resorts back to how it was in 1992 with the Wealthy land owners in Haiti refusing to pay taxes and forming opposition rebels and the GOP supporting them. The peoples choice (Aristide) by over 70% gets elected again and again and it really pisses off the elite. Bush* is treating Haiti the same way he is treating Venezuela. The last thing Bush* and his cronies want is Democracy. Not in Haiti or Venezuela or Iraq. Ain't gunna happen.

[bobbieinok]

3. or in US

obvious addition UNFORTUNATELY

[Octafish]

5. Exactly.

After the coup, Poppy Bush wouldn't life a finger to help the democratically elected Aristide. The US government, including Jesse Helms, who did all they could to support the landed gentry -- that one percent owns 99 percent, including the illegal drug trade.

Clinton believed in doing something to stabilize the country, at least giving Aristide a chance. Where Clinton failed was in not providing sufficient money to effect socioeconomic change.

Ironic how we again see the results of such Bush policy in Iraq, where Bush 1 and Clinton penured the country while trying to beat down Hussein.

It's infinitely cheaper to rebuild a nation without needed to prosecute a war. Best of all is to do it when times are peaceful.

[Bozita]

4. 3 minute notice