[Marxism] Kerry criticizes Bush on Haiti

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

March 7, 2004
In Sweeping Critique, Kerry Condemns Bush for Failing to Back Aristide
By DAVID E. SANGER
and DAVID M. HALBFINGER

HOUSTON, March 6 — Had he been sitting in the Oval Office last weekend
as rebel forces were threatening to enter Port-au-Prince, Senator John
Kerry says, he would have sent an international force to protect Haiti's
widely disliked elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"I would have been prepared to send troops immediately, period," Mr.
Kerry said on Friday, expressing astonishment that President Bush, who
talks of supporting democratically elected leaders, withheld any aid and
then helped spirit Mr. Aristide into exile after saying the United
States could not protect him. 

"Look, Aristide was no picnic, and did a lot of things wrong," Mr. Kerry
said. But Washington "had understandings in the region about the right
of a democratic regime to ask for help. And we contravened all of that.
I think it's a terrible message to the region, democracies, and it's
shortsighted."


Comment:

This is definitely one election campaign where we have to drop the
(always simplistic) argument that there are no differences between the
major party candidates.  This election is about differences and debates,
differences in the capitalist ruling class about how to screw working
people in the United States and around the world -- HOW to occupy Haiti;
How to strengthen the US position in Iraq; HOW  to wage the war in
Afghanistan: HOW to carry out the campaigns against north Korea and
Syria; HOW to increase the size of the army for more wars; and HOW to
cut social security in the name of "saving" it and reducing the deficit.

On most of these debated issues Kerry is clearly gaining ground, for
good reason.  Of course when it comes to basic moral credibility on
going to war and establishing a new draft, the badly-injured Vietnam war
veteran and antiwar activist Kerry has Bush beat by a country mile.  And
he doesn't have the lies about the WMD and the Haiti coup weighing on
his shoulders.  He can lie afresh.

Haiti is typical of the Bush administration's capacity not so much to
create new Vietnams, as two, three, many different kinds of quagmire.
Kerry may not be able to actually  do better  -- I think he'll end up in
the same kind of mess if he wins -- but he can certainly make a credible
case for it.

Look at Haiti.  Confident that he who has the guns can do pretty much
what he wants, the Bush administration turned an occupation that had
been REQUESTED BY ARISTIDE into an invasion in violation of
international law.  This is different than what happened in the Congo,
where the imperialist troops did not immediately overthrow Lumumba, but
maneuvered and acted in ways that weakened him and strengthened his
enemies, before directly moving against him and moving him to Katanga to
be executed.  The actual imperialist occupation had the moral cover of
having been requested by Lumumba who wanted to restore unity and peace
in his newly-independent country, and if they had overthrown him right
off the bat, it would have been exposed from the start and would have
faced more isolation and probably even greater resistance.
This is what happened in Haiti.

Kerry and Bush do not disagree over undermining and ultimately ridding
the imperialists of Aristide, who continues to show from exile why they
hate him in spite of his desire for an accommodation with the US and
other imperialist powers.

Kerry's proposed course bears MORE resemblance to the Congo intervention
than what Bush carried out -- a thuggish coup, with the rightist killers
openly used as backup (if you don't leave, we will let them kill you).
Instead of having some credibiltiy internally and internationally, they
have initiated their presence by overthrowing the constitutional order
and the elected president.  They have Aristide effectively exposing
their actions and denouncing the occupiers from his captivity in the
Central African Republic, with Haiti and all the world as a rapt
audience.  They have no support in the Caribbean.  Rather than preparing
the way for the attack on Venezuela, the better-led and organized
popular movement in Venezuela has been put on notice. And now a march of
at least 10,000 in Haiti -- maybe much more, but 10,000 is pretty good
under imperialist and far-rightist occupation -- has begun the open
fight against occupation and for bringing the deported president home
from captivity.

Kerry's got a strong case, no doubt about it.  If I was a billionaire, I
think I would give him a shot at the job, and send Bush away with
minimal thanks.

But I agree with what Granma International recently said  about the
occupation of Haiti that threw out Aristide, as well as the previous
occupation that sought the cover of re-installing the ousted president
and forcing out the military regime, and other occupations of Haiti in
the past 100 years:

"Those who believe that a foreign military presence will constitute a
guarantee for pacifying the country are making a great error. When those
soldiers return to their bases, life will be the same in this little
nation, the first free republic in the Caribbean and a country that
today, in the 21st century, possesses levels of poverty that are
medieval. We have seen the film already."
 
Fred Feldman



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