Disputes emerge over Haiti aid control

[Andronex]

Run time: 03:09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F5TwEK24sA   Posted on YouTube: January 17, 2010 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: January 17, 2010 By DU Member: Andronex Views on DU: 805

 
It is five days since a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, spreading fear and misery across an already fragile nation.

After a relatively slow start, US forces appear to be taking the lead in organising international aid efforts on the ground.

But there is a long way to go. Residents outside the capital complain they have been forgotten.

In rural towns and villages survivors have largely been left to fend for themselves. Al Jazeera's Sebastian Walker reports from Port Au Prince, the capital.

[Tx4obama]

1. The military DOES need to be there to keep the peace

1) Two volunteers from DR have already been shot and were airlifted out to hospitals.
2) There were gangs of Haitians roaming the streets with machetes yesterday.
3) People are fighting and throwing stones at each other when food when it is dropped from helicopters.

Things are going to get much worse before they get better, so some type of police/military presence needs to be there on the ground to keep order.

[Andronex]

2. really...

I guess we know better than the Haitians people themselves, but the violence level doesn't seem to be a problem for other nations actually giving humanitarian relief for several days now. This is Katrina again with the same bogus racist arguments about dangerous black gangs. Different president same BS, as people are dying, the priority is given to the military agenda.

[Tx4obama]

3. Priority has NOT been given to the military agenda.

Haven't you seen all the rescue teams, food, water, medical supplies etc that have been flown into Haiti.
So what is your plan... have no military there at all and just let all the Haitians walk on in and take all the supplies that are at the airport and create chaos?
If there is no law and order it will impend the relief efforts!

So go ahead and tell us your plan of how everything should be done.

[Andronex]

4. Other nations are already there...

distributing supplies in an orderly fashion with little security, and Haitians are waiting patiently in line, but the US prefers to throw food at them from helicopters with the predictable results, who is to blame ?

[Tx4obama]

5. You don't know what you're talking about...

Who said the USA prefers to throw food at them?
Did you see the news yesterday will all of our troops handing out plates of cooked food in an orderly fashion.
Just because some helicopters dropped some boxes of rations that does mean that is all they are doing!

What's up with you? Are you American? Don't you know that it was the USA that got the airport up and running again? Got air traffic control under control, etc.?

This is NOT the time to be bashing the USA when we are doing everything in our power to get aid to Haiti!

[Andronex]

7. right...

"Did you see the news yesterday will all of our troops handing out plates of cooked food in an orderly fashion."

So why bring up the situation with the helicopter as a reason justifying troop presence, when you know that the problem is how the food is distributed and not the Haitian people.

If you knew anything about Haitian history you would understand how inappropriate and counterproductive the US troop buildup is.

[setfreetruth]

10. My sentiments exactly. The next time disaster comes to their

own back doors, I hope everyone will remember that we must wait several days to establish security before we begin to offer water, food, and medical care.

[JDPriestly]

11. That is precisely what you have to do. You have to have a police

presence, a firm police presence, to make sure that aid is distributed fairly and not just to the healthy, young but not too young and aggressive.

Unfortunately, that is a fact. It is a relatively simple matter to distribute a small amount of aid to a small number of people. But the U.S. will be airlifting tons and tons of food and medical supplies.

The biggest danger is disease. And trying to establish sanitary conditions will take a very well disciplined crew of men and women, not just our troops, but certainly involving our troops and others.

The weapons are also necessary to establish who is in charge. In a crisis, bullies get the upper hand and then you get successions of dictatorships.

I trust the Obama administration to do the right thing in general in Haiti, but in situations like this, it is never possible to do everything right.

And, by the way, there is no reason for Americans to want to go into Haiti at this time other than to help out. There is no way that Al Jazeera can blame the U.S. for the earthquake.

While the troops look menacing with their weapons and gear, they alone can bring the discipline, order and energy to help out in this situation. The weapons are a part of the their gear. Let's hope they aren't needed. If the sight of a weapon keeps someone from grabbing a piece of bread from a child or old person, then good for the weapon.

[Jamastiene]

6. K&R

Best of luck trying to point out the cold hard truth to those with industrial strength blinders on. They'll never listen.

[Oerdin]

8. The truth is.

Aid workers are being attacked & shot and law and order has broken down. There is no way to orderly distribute supplies unless there is order. Most flights are filled with needed supplies, or so I've heard, so I'd chalk this up as yet another example of Aljazeera's biased reporting. Fox isn't the only network with an agenda to twist the truth.

[Turborama]

9. I agree with most of your post, apart from likening Al Jazeera English to Faux

Unfortunately, comments like that show how the brainwashing carried out to turn Americans against them by Busch, Rumsfeld et al during the Iraq war is still prevalent in the US. I went into great detail about this here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6848728#6850961

Al Jazeera English are as, if not more, credible than most, if not all, US Main Stream News Media. Al Jazeera English isn't perfect but unlike the vast majority of news channels, they have a http://english.aljazeera.net/aboutus/2006/11/2008525185733692771.html">code of ethics. It's my opinion that the report was over the top about guns going in to Haiti and they should be called out on it, that doesn't mean Al Jazeera English has an "agenda to twist the truth" (anybody who actually http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english_english">watches Al Jazeera English would know that). But, right or wrong, the concern is that this is turning into more of a military operation than an aid mission. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4228588">Military flights are getting priority over aid flights, for example.

[Jamastiene]

12. Sure

They show one group of people suffering to get the aid money, then go there to help the wealthy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/17/AR2010011702941.html

Or does the Washington Post have an agenda to twist the truth too?

How many sources telling the truth do you need to believe the truth?