> > >Since I had not seen Julian take any abuse,
> > >I assumed he was hallucinating. Either that,
> > >or he became French -- they're so sensitive.
> >
> > It could be an allergic reaction to the
> > invasion of Haiti in which the French leapt
> > into bed with the yanks and ousted
> > a democratically elected president.
>
> Don't live in France, and am not French.
>
> But I must admit, it does make me wanna puke,
> so you may be onto something.
Having the French leap into one's bed would make one puke. The smell, doncha know.
> (some of us, OTOH, are texans and W-ites)
The reaction of most people I spoke to before Aristide left was, "What's that got to do with us? They've been hopeless for 200 years. Not our problem." For those who knew much about the situation, the response was, "Aristide probably corrupted the parlaimentary election sufficiently that he was not really democratically elected in the subsequent presidential election, but he's still the best of a set of bad alternatives. Let's stay out of it." Everyone's reaction was, "If the French care about it, let them handle it."
Personally, I dislike both Chavez (another White House failure to support democracy) and Aristide, but both were elected--in flawed elections, but saying "flawed election" is redundant even in civilized places like St. Louis, where dogs and dead people vote regularly. So, if I were Colin Powell, I'd have said that, while it is really none of our business and we're not sending troops in any case, we'd prefer that Haiti replace its elected leaders only through constitutional processes.
Instead, it appears that we convinced him that (a) he was in personal danger and we would not protect him and (b) his leaving would help save lives. (Don't downplay the latter entirely -- the man was a priest, so appealing to his conscience would be powerful.) I find (a) to be rather repugnant, since we immediately sent 1700 marines in and I'm pretty sure they could have protected him adequately.
So, sadly, I have to agree with those who argue that the neo-cons decided that we would not oppose the ouster of Aristide, thus ensuring that it occurred.
Another bad day for the spread of democracy.
:-(
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