Bush’s Call For Democracy Falls Short 600 Miles From Our Shore
Bush’s Call For Democracy Falls Short 600 Miles From Our Shore
Today is presidential election day in Haiti, but President Bush doesn’t seem to have taken notice. The last time Bush even mentioned Haiti was three months ago. In his State of the Union address, Bush said:
Abroad, our nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal — we seek the end of tyranny in our world. Some dismiss that goal as misguided idealism. In reality, the future security of America depends on it. … Every step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer — so we will act boldly in freedom’s cause.
But for the 8 million Haitians who live a mere 600 miles from the U.S. shore, Bush’s words ring hollow. Former Sen. Tom Daschle argues that the administration’s mishandling of Haiti “threatens further instability in a country not far from America’s shores.”
As just one example of the administration’s neglect of Haiti, simply compare the experiences of the Iraqi and Haitian elections.
Haiti
Voting has got off to a rough start in volatile Haiti as angry mobs stormed voting centers that failed to open on time, with one person dying of a heart attack and another of asphyxia. Several more people were injured or fainted as they were trampled or shoved by crowds that rushed voting offices on Tuesday.
Iraq
By increasing American troop strength in Iraq, banning all civilian car traffic and ordering a host of other security measures American and Iraqi forces widely thwarted insurgents who had threatened to wash the streets with blood on election day.
Haiti
“We need tables, we need chairs, we need lights and someone needs to clean the floor, it’s dirty,” said a poll supervisor at a trash-strewn warehouse that was serving as a polling center but failed to open on time.
Iraq
In the run-up to Iraq’s elections, the State Department’s spokesman this week ticked off the final markers of progress: 130 planeloads of voting materials had landed in Iraq, including 90,000 ballot boxes and 60 million ballots — a flurry of up to 15 flights a day to Iraqi airfields. In a last-minute American role, officials said, the U.S. military will assist today in distributing the equipment to polling stations.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
The threads just keep comin’, if your preznit douchebag wasn’t such a f*!k up, your job as a paid poster would be much less stressful, Gary, IRI, BSR, Tracy, etc.
February 7th, 2006 at 3:55 pmwe’ve never had a sound policy with regard to Haiti… even Clinton turned Haitian refugees away while giving Cuban ones exile status…
February 7th, 2006 at 3:57 pmHaiti just needs to announce they have al Qaeda in their country. Then we’ll start paying attention.
February 7th, 2006 at 3:58 pmBush’s foreign policy to spread democracy seems only done with bullets and not any real assistance. Shoot first..vote later.
February 7th, 2006 at 3:59 pm#3
February 7th, 2006 at 4:00 pmor oil
Abroad, our nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal — we seek the end of tyranny in our world. Some dismiss that goal as misguided idealism. In reality, the future security of America depends on it. … Every step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer — so we will act boldly in freedom’s cause.
He seeks the end of Tryanny in the World, yet he wants to be Unitary Executive??
I have had enough Double speak For one Day..Catch yall later
February 7th, 2006 at 4:02 pmgood call #5. Haitian oil would do the trick. I can see it now: drilling in the Haitian National Wildlife Refuge. HNWR
February 7th, 2006 at 4:02 pmNow if Haitia had oil like say the 5 largest producer in the world ,boy kingjester would be dancing on the waves for 600 miles with Haliburton beside of him.
Its a very poor country and what resources does it have?
February 7th, 2006 at 4:09 pm“Democracy is on the march”
Just somewhere else.
February 7th, 2006 at 4:09 pmOf course he fails to also mention…
HAMAS
February 7th, 2006 at 4:11 pmand Iran
February 7th, 2006 at 4:49 pmFunny thing is, Aristide’s close friend and ally Preval is winning and when questioned said, he would not have any problem letting Aristide and family back in the country.All anti-Aristide canidates are getting less than 10% of the vote.
February 7th, 2006 at 4:56 pmGee, I guess removing Aristide by force, using Blackwater mercs and Marines, might have been a clue to US policy in the region.
Or Rice’s “I don’t want to see him back in this hemisphere” comment, referring to Aristide.
That’s not tyranny, right?
February 7th, 2006 at 4:56 pmIts really funny how the left seems to think that all the world’s problems began on January 20, 2001. I guess in their closed minds, it really did. Just keep thinking the way you are, and you’ll continue to lose voters. This is just getting too easy!
February 7th, 2006 at 5:04 pmthe issue is not that the world’s problems may not have been created on that date — the issue is that the problems have become much worse since then
February 7th, 2006 at 5:07 pmWhat’s remarkable in all these votes is how in Iraq,Palestine and Haiti,the very issues that drove so many voters in the US in 2000 and especially in 2004 are being played out and the Secretary of State,who is touted as so intelligent as to be a candidate in 2008, can’t recognize the pattern.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:14 pmUS voters who went for GWB bought the whole religious and values nonsense but are aghast when the election results overseas so closely mirror their own. What is stunning is that the riots over the cartoons are the extreme end of the very trend line so evident in GWB adherents. The Muslim protestors are the same ideology espoused by the Dobsons,Robertsons and Falwells et al. here.
Bush helped to overthrow President Aristide, so he does NOT care about real democracy in Haiti! He supports a sham election!
February 7th, 2006 at 5:15 pmIt is even funnier to claim to be for the “spreading” of democracy and at the same time remove all democraticaly elected leaders that you oppose. Even the village idiot would find a problem with that.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:18 pmI thought it was September 11th, Randy. For Christ’s sake man, did you get today’s fax or not?
Come on repeat after me: ‘Republicans are in a post-9-11 mindset, Democrats in a pre-9-11 mindset’. Jesus, do I have to do it all? I’ll get Karl to stop your check.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:18 pm#14
February 7th, 2006 at 5:20 pmThey actually started when Clinton was President right?
The only reason Preval is even allowed to run as president is because he has assured Bush that he will do anything he asks or demands! The other presidential candidates in Haiti represent the wealthy elite and even by cheating cannot win!
February 7th, 2006 at 5:21 pmFather Jean-Juste was kept in a prison cell in Haiti until he contacted Leukemia/cancer, so unable to run for president! President Aristide NEVER gave up his position and was forced into exile by a CIA backed rebel coup!
Actually it started back in 1982. Where have you been. Catch up or don’t post.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:24 pmSoon to be President Preval again will be told to toe the US line, or be swept out by coup, or assassinated! The poor will vote for him because they have NO other hope at present! I feel very sad for the Haitian poor masses!
February 7th, 2006 at 5:26 pmWhen will Bush call for Democracy in the White House?
Not to worry, this non-sense is going to end. Here’s what you can do: Get your local officials to discuss this non-sense. Here’s the effort: [ Click ] There is nothing the RNC Controlled Congress can do to bury this in committee. The House rules and precedent permit this approach; and it forces the House to vote up or down on impeachment. Then the voters will have time to decide: Who is with or against the Constitution, and find new leaders.
Can’t work? Here’s a sample success story: [ Click ] Vermont is forcing Congress to respond!
Senate in the way? Well, the plan solves that! Here’s how these local debates will force Congress to vote on impeachment, and commit on their oaths — giving voters time to evaluate the facts and find new leaders in Congress, tipping the balance away from the RNC: [Click] The RNC is in a no-win situation. The leadership has to assert their oaths, lawfully remove this man from office, or Congress will lose their positions.
February 7th, 2006 at 5:58 pmRandy, look up randy in the dictionary.
February 7th, 2006 at 6:06 pmI worked in Haiti in 1983, when “Baby Doc” Duvalier was in power, so I know the nation and its people very well! I also helped President Aristide after he was first overthrown in 1991 by a CIA backed military coup!
February 7th, 2006 at 6:11 pmAristide was overthrown by a 2nd coup in 2004, which was ordered by President Bush Junior > Bush Senior his father ordered the first coup! “Like father like son” for Haiti!
There was an interesting documentary about Haiti on the Discovery Times channel called Haiti, Democracy Undone about the overthrow of Aristide. I don’t know if it’s airing this month, but it’s wort a view if you can find it.
February 7th, 2006 at 6:14 pmre: #8 -”Its a very poor country and what resources does it have?”
Virtually none at this point – the country has been raped.
Just found these words by Frederick Douglass – 1893
February 7th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Hati has been a basket case for decades.
February 7th, 2006 at 6:44 pmAs bad as it might have been it would have been because their people had elected a bad president.
Now it’s chaos and it’s because George Bush had his hands on it.
You see that so much these days.
February 7th, 2006 at 7:28 pmNo Oil, No army – that’s the reality of capitalism and its hold on morality. And it’s ashame. We could have done a lot more to alleviate suffering by using our political, military and technological know how for places like haiti, instead of wasting trillions on Iraq. It’s just so sad to see how badly managed this administration has been from day one.
February 7th, 2006 at 7:58 pmBush not going to pay attention to Haiti because they don’t have oil over there and since when he cares about black people.
February 7th, 2006 at 9:29 pmI wish that the US operated by laying down a set of generic goals for foreign policy, and publishing how our dealings with each individual country furthers those aims. Something along the lines of: “The US will commit X amount of money and troops to region Y, because securing elections in that region will further National Foreign Policy objectives 1.c, 3.q and 5.k”
If such a system existed in a workable form, we might at least lay claim to consistency in foreign policy. But it doesn’t, and probably never will.
While I think that BushCo is horribly inconsistent and hypocritical in its application of foreign policy, this one is easy: “Every step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer — so we will act boldly in freedom’s cause.”
If we act to advance “freedom” (aka, democracy) for reasons of *national security*, then Haiti should not even be on our map. Until intelligence suggests that they have ill will towards the US and the power to do something about it, they are a non-threat.
Having said that, by the same rules, I don’t think we should have gone to Iraq, either.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:11 pmLooks like Preval has won the election like I expected > no way the Bush Regime could cheat enough for the other candidates! Saddest thing is that Preval’s first term in office from 1996 to 2000 was marred by massive corruption and drug trafficking, but he toed the World Bank line and kissed the feet of the US government! Since Bush could not install his Haitian Texan millionaire friend as president, Preval is the best he could hope for > lol.
President Aristide truely helped the poor in Haiti, but nobody liked him in Washington, DC, because he was NOT a ass-kisser and refused to cooperate with the World Bank!
February 9th, 2006 at 10:08 amThe threads just keep comin’, if your preznit douchebag wasn’t such a f*!k up, your job as a paid poster would be much less stressful, Gary, IRI, BSR, Tracy, etc.
Comment by For Truth
The Filthy Left never runs out of human misery that they in truth are responsible for to lay at the feet of George Bush. So that demon possessed shit hole called Haiti is Bush’s fault as well is it? Fine, we can fix it pretty quick. We’ll just send Bill “First Black President” Clinton and Jimmah “Chicken Sacrifice” Carter over there to tell them how to behave. That should do it.
February 9th, 2006 at 12:45 pmPresident Aristide truely helped the poor in Haiti, but nobody liked him in Washington, DC, because he was NOT a ass-kisser and refused to cooperate with the World Bank!
Comment by Jay Randal
You sound like the used tire salesman Jimmah “WideTrac” Carter that sold him his “collars”. That fucking murderous lunatic Aristide is burning in hell right now. Let him kiss the devil’s ass until Carter arrives.
February 9th, 2006 at 12:50 pm