Haitian earthquake was used as an excuse for US invasion

[perseus]

Economic freedom is defined in a way to flatter capitalist economies and is largely meaningless. Wouldn't a truly fair economic 'free society' legalise drugs and prostitution? Yet few of us would consider this to be a good thing. I expect the poorer US citizen without access to health-care feels economically enslaved!

 

[Hans]

Is that your way of denying that the US has an politically powerful economic elite?

If so, why are you denying it?

I believe he is denying your concept that they are a monolithic block of same thinkers ho wish to promote an evil version of capitalism.

There are lots of politically powerful people in the economic elite - but they don't all think alike, have the same goals or operate together towards a common goal. In so cases their goals contradiction one another.

But we have drifted off the OP haven't we?

 

[Skeptic]

Economic freedom is defined in a way to flatter capitalist economies and is largely meaningless.

Not really. While capitalistic countries have economic problems, the record of socialistic economies has been uniformly disastrous. The workers live far worse in the "paradise of the workers" unfree economies than in the "exploiting capitalist" free ones.

It's true of course that no economy is totally free (or unfree), or that a totally free economy would be a good thing, but that doesn't mean the distinction is meaningless.

Winston Churchill said it best: the problem with capitalism is the unequal distribution of happiness; the problem with socialism, the equal distribution of misery.

 

[Pardalis]

Meanwhile in Haïti (you know, the topic of the thread if anyone remembers), the US Navy is hard at work rebuilding the county's main port.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Haiti+port+capacity+boosted+repairs+advancing/2608592/story.html

 

[Skeptic]

Oh yeah? Well, they just want to use it as a military base as they take over the country!

Well, I just made that up, but it HAS to be true because the US army is EVIL!

 

[Travis]

Economic freedom is defined in a way to flatter capitalist economies and is largely meaningless. Wouldn't a truly fair economic 'free society' legalise drugs and prostitution? Yet few of us would consider this to be a good thing.

I would consider it a good thing and not just for economic reasons.

I expect the poorer US citizen without access to health-care feels economically enslaved!

It's possible to have high economic freedom and have universal health care. In fact, out of the top eight countries for economic freedom, the USA was the only country that didn't have universal health care.

 

[CORed]

Economic freedom is defined in a way to flatter capitalist economies and is largely meaningless. Wouldn't a truly fair economic 'free society' legalise drugs and prostitution? Yet few of us would consider this to be a good thing. I expect the poorer US citizen without access to health-care feels economically enslaved!

I would consider both the legalization of drugs and the legalization of prostitution to be good things.

 

[JihadJane]

I believe he is denying your concept that they are a monolithic block of same thinkers ho wish to promote an evil version of capitalism.

There are lots of politically powerful people in the economic elite - but they don't all think alike, have the same goals or operate together towards a common goal. In so cases their goals contradiction one another.

But we have drifted off the OP haven't we?

What scarmenjonze is doing is taking a hopeful shot in the dark with a lazy, cartoon stereotype.

Neither his "monolithic blocks" concept nor your "all think alike" concept belong to me.

 

[Pardalis]

Are you done using this tragedy for your own selfish end, Jihad?

 

[Pardalis]

Would you look at that, the Chilean government is going to increase the deployment of its troops to 14,000.

http://www.english.rfi.fr/chile-increases-deployment-troops-14000-across-quake-hit-areas

According to Jihad and Perseus' logic, it looks like Chile is trying to invade itself.

 

[perseus]

Millions of dollars earmarked for victims of the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85 went on buying weapons, the BBC has learned.

An investigation found claims that a rebel movement in Ethiopia diverted the aid to fund its attempt to overthrow the government of the time.

Rebel soldiers said they posed as merchants as "a trick for the NGOs".

Documents released by the CIA confirmed aid was "almost certainly being diverted for military purposes".....


In January 1983 President Ronald Reagan issued National Security Directive 75, which aimed to confront the Soviet Union across the developing world.

"US policy will seek to limit and destabilise activities of Soviet Third World allies and clients," it said.

In November 2009 Robert Gates - President Obama's Secretary of Defence - gave a speech describing how he briefed President Reagan during his time as deputy head of the CIA.

He said that the president's approach was to "impose ever stiffer costs on the Soviet Union for its Third World adventurism".

And he includes Ethiopia among the states like Nicaragua and Afghanistan in which - as he puts it - "Soviet surrogates soon faced their own lethal insurgencies".

Mr Gates was unwilling to expand on just how the US backed the Ethiopian insurgents, but since there were only a limited number of rebel movements, the suggestion cannot be ruled out that the CIA not only knew about, but supported, the diversion of aid funds to the TPLF.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8535189.stm

 

[Travis]

So?

 

[dtugg]

And that has exactly what to do with the fictional US invasion of Haiti? Is your position that because the CIA may have known about and supported the diversion of these funds twenty-five years ago, that the USA is evil and thus its presence in Haiti nefarious? 'Cause that is a really stupid argument.

 

[perseus]

Mercenaries Circling Haiti

On March 9 and 10, there will be a Haiti conference in Miami for private military and security companies to showcase their services to governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the earthquake devastated country.

Triple Canopy, a private military company with extensive security operations in Iraq and Israel, is advertising for business in Haiti. According to human rights activist and investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, Triple Canopy took over the Xe/Blackwater security contract in Iraq in 2009. Scahill reports on a number of bloody incidents involving Triple Canopy including one where a team leader told his group, "I want to kill somebody today…because I am going on vacation tomorrow."

http://www.zcommunications.org/mercenaries-circling-haiti-by-bill-quigley

 

[dtugg]

So?

 

[perseus]

Quite a good summary of the operation is here

Official denials aside, the United States has embarked on a new military occupation of Haiti thinly cloaked as disaster relief. But what is the purpose of an occupation, the fourth in the past 100 years? The official response, from the Pentagon to the United Nations, was that more U.S. and UN troops were needed to provide "security and stability" to bring in aid. Leaving aside what is really meant by security and stability, the rapid military response was actually a major reason why aid was delayed. One week after the January 12 earthquake, Doctors Without Borders said 5 of its cargo flights carrying 85tons of medical and relief supplies had been turned away from the Port-au-Prince airport, which was under U.S. military control.

The overarching goal is to keep Haiti within the "West Atlantic system," that is, part of the American empire. With "rollback" guiding U.S. foreign policy in the region—support for the coup in Honduras, seven new military bases in Colombia, stepped-up hostility toward Bolivia and Venezuela—an occupation of Haiti fits into the overall scheme. Related to that, the United States aims to ensure that Haiti does not pose the "threat of a good example" by pursuing an independent path, as it tried to under President Jean-Bertrand Aristide—which is why he was toppled twice, in 1991 and 2004, in U.S.-backed coups. Instead, Haiti must adhere to extreme neoliberalism and serve as an ultra-low-wage processing zone close to the United States.

Thus, while much of the corporate media fixated on "looters," virtually every independent observer in Haiti after the earthquake—David Wilson, Bill Quigley, Amy Goodman, Kim Ives, Dolores Bernal—noted the lack of violence. Even the commander of U.S. forces in Haiti, Lt. Gen. Keen, described the security situation as "relatively calm."

http://www.zcommunications.org/haiti-a-new-u-s-occupation-disguised-as-disaster-relief-by-arun-gupta

 

[dtugg]

Well if it says so on some random anti-American website it must be true!

 

[Pardalis]

Just link dumping again.

What about the MINUSTAH and Canadian forces in Haïti? You keep ignoring their presence in Haïti. Is the UN and Canada trying to invade Haïti as well?

What about Chile, Perseus? The military operations there, is Chile trying to invade itself, or is it trying to restore social order so that the aid is distributed fairly and safely?

 

[Pardalis]

Quite a good summary of the operation is here



http://www.zcommunications.org/haiti-a-new-u-s-occupation-disguised-as-disaster-relief-by-arun-gupta

But thanks anyway for providing the means to debunk yourself, Perseus.

In your article:

Clearly, the military response was not about providing aid. But neither was it about oil, the idea of the moment. Based on a Bloomberg News report, conspiracy theorists speculated feverishly that the U.S. was occupying Haiti for its hydrocarbon wealth. It sounds vaguely plausible because [...]Second, concluding the U.S. invasion was about oil assumes Haiti has no interest in developing oil reserves or, if it did, concessions would not go to Western oil companies, and there is no evidence for either position. Third, and most important, Haiti's energy reserves are meager at best.

Kind of contradicts this, doesn't it?:

With regard to potential wealth, I'm not too sure Haiti is that poor. Read

Oil in Haiti - Economic Reasons for the UN/US occupation

People, their resources and their land.

I suggest you also read the other threads on the topic. Plenty of reasons have been put forward. Additionally there are large oil, gas and gold prospects.

So why are they invading Haïti for again?

Oh right, to strengthen the "American Empire"... Yeah right, Haïti was always such a big threat to America's empire, and especially now that its government and economy is almost inexistent.

 

[aggle-rithm]

Oh right, to strengthen the "American Empire"... Yeah right, Haïti was always such a big threat to America's empire, and especially now that its government and economy is almost inexistent.

When are we getting all that Haiti money? My mortgage payment is due.