Bush undermined Haiti democracy (JESSE JAGMO ALERT)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | March 2, 2004 | JESSE JACKSON

[Chi-townChief]

So much for all that talk about democracy. President Bush dispatched Marines to Haiti to secure order -- after his administration forced the elected leader of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide -- into exile. Now the administration will determine who gets to run Haiti.

For the Bush administration it was clear: The Haitian voters had put their faith in and cast their votes for the wrong man, so he had to go. Bush then ridiculously announced that the ''Haitian constitution is working'' -- as if words could turn night into day.

Aristide was a huge disappointment to his followers. He made, as the leaders of the State Department say, ''many mistakes.'' Mostly he failed to find a way to reconcile the greed of the Haitian elite with the needs of the vast majority of impoverished Haitian people. He could never curb the violence of either his followers or his enemies. And he presided over an administration that grew more intolerant and corrupt. But he was the choice of the Haitian people.

The U.S. government never liked Aristide. The neocons loathed him as a messianic dreamer who believed in redistribution of wealth. The CIA's covert operators viewed him as an ideological adversary. The Haitian elites enlisted lobbyists from both parties to undermine him. The Haitian military, which he disbanded, despised him.

So when the Haitian ''opposition,'' led by that same elite, fed the thugs, former death squad killers, gun-runners and drug dealers who formed the armed rebellion against Aristide, the United States did nothing.

As the rebellion started taking over cities, freeing prisoners and condoning widespread looting, the Bush administration -- alarmed at the political fallout that might result from Haitian refugees flooding into Florida -- decided to act. It pressured Aristide to accept a coalition government that would be led by the opposition.

But the opposition leaders, smelling blood, refused, demanding Aristide's departure. They suffered no negative consequences. The Bush administration did nothing to suggest it would stand by the elected leader of Haiti. Instead, it ramped up the pressure on Aristide and forced him into exile. A democratically elected leader was toppled with the aid of the U.S. administration.

Now the United States is once more responsible for Haiti's fate. Once more, the elites are clamoring for a return to their former privilege. Once more the United States will have to decide how or whether to build a police force that can provide security. Once more the United States will have to decide if it has the will and the patience and the generosity to build basic infrastructure in Haiti essential to creating any kind of a functioning economy that operates beyond the level of legalized theft.

The toppling of a democratically elected president -- however flawed his administration -- should not be treated as business as usual. We need congressional hearings to probe the administration's role in this debacle. Was the CIA connected to its former agents that were leading the rebellion? Did Bush hold off any assistance to Aristide in order to force his exit?

With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, and Republican leaders still marching in lockstep with the White House, rigorous hearings will be hard to achieve. Independent commissions and investigative journalists must take up the task.

This coup sends a chilling message to leaders across the world. Turns out all that rhetoric about supporting democracy as a centerpiece of U.S. policy is just words, not policy.

This administration values governments that protect private investment and stability for U.S. multinationals. Stable dictatorships are preferred to unstable democracies. So it runs up massive trade deficits and maintains cordial relations with the repressive, communist dictatorship of China, while it topples the elected president of Haiti.

As we learned in Florida four years ago, Bush is all for elections, but only if they come out the right way.

[Democrap]

This ones for you Jesse!

[Jaxter]

Sounds like somebody's not going to be getting anymore Haitian aid kick-backs.

[sanjacjake]

yOU HAVE THE KEY ..THAT THE DEMS WILL BE USING RIGHT UP
TO NOVEMBBER....JESSE AND ALL THE HALF=A$$ CANDIDATES
WILL BE SAYING..TV ADS...FLORI--DUH..DUH..ROBBED US ..WE
NEED TO GET MORE VOTES OUT ....THEY WILL PUMP THIS FOR
ALL ITS WORTH...YOU CAN BET ON IT....WE HAVE TO COUNTER
WITH ALL THE FREEPING wE CAN MUSTER...REMEMBER THE NEXT
BIG BATTLE IS SUPREME COURT VACANCY..READ THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL TODAY..BIG PIECE ON HOW THEY ARE MOVING TO GET
THEIR MAN/wOMAN ON THE SUPREME COURT. WE NEED TO GET MORE
IN THE SENATE TO COMBAT THESE PEOPLE...Jake

[atomicpossum]

Jesse, how did you become so rich just looking out for the poor?

[canuck_conservative]

Canada has annoying, whining Quebecers; the US has the annoying, whining Congressional Black Caucus.

BTW, re Aristide's claim that he was "forced out" by the US: didn't he first say that he stepped down voluntarily, to save Haiti from further violence? I guess he's admitting then that he was lying - so why believe anything the clown says?!

[atomicpossum]

But he was the choice of the Haitian people.

So was Nixon, Jesse.

[.45MAN]

This man? Jesse J. is worse than the Vodo priests in Haiti when it comes to controlling people and taking their money..

[Howlin]

how's that sweater stained with Martin Luther King's blood doin?

It was a shirt. But the story is true.

[Stallone]

Jackson is a race-baiter and a convicted liar.

No one cares what he thinks.

[atomicpossum]

But he was the choice of the Haitian people.

So was Nixon, Jesse.

Well, not of the Haiitian people, but the point is clear...

[OpusatFR]

Why do the democrats always seem to support these thugs?

News from Haiti is very happy that Arestide is gone. The people have been suffering under this b@stard since the Clinton regime installed him by bringing him back to Haiti and forcing those elections.

[Tacis]

Jesse must be "deeply troubled" by Aristide's departure! To him it means no more Haitian "quasi-virgins" or high quality Columbian stuff. Jesse may have to go back to hookers and honeys on his staff. How many houses in California can he afford?

[FourtySeven]

But the story is true.

Do you mean Jesse Jackson really did have a shirt stained with King's blood?

[kevkrom]

So when the Haitian ''opposition,'' led by that same elite, fed the thugs, former death squad killers, gun-runners and drug dealers who formed the armed rebellion against Aristide, the United States did nothing. As the rebellion started taking over cities, freeing prisoners and condoning widespread looting, the Bush administration -- alarmed at the political fallout that might result from Haitian refugees flooding into Florida -- decided to act. It pressured Aristide to accept a coalition government that would be led by the opposition. But the opposition leaders, smelling blood, refused, demanding Aristide's departure.

This is a flat-out lie, not just a shaded interpretation of facts. The opposition leaders demanded from the very beginning of their insurrection the removal of Aristide -- it was not the result of any US intervention or non-intervention, it was the sole (stated) purpose of the rebellion.

[Poodlebrain]

"Mostly he failed to find a way to reconcile the greed of the Haitian elite with the needs of the vast majority of impoverished Haitian people."

"Once more, the elites are clamoring for a return to their former privilege."

I'm confused. The first quote indicates that the elites were enriching themselves at the expense of the majority. Yet the second indicates that the elites were unhappy that they had lost their former privileges and supported the overthrow of the system that allowed them to enrich themselves at the expense of the majority. Are the Haitian elites that stupid?

I'd like to hear Jesse's answer to some questions, "what privileges are elites entitled to in the USA?" Do they include Budweiser distributorships? How many of the masses of impoverished blacks in America are going to get one of those franchises?

[Free ThinkerNY]

[pankot]

Of Jesse the phrase "Full of s__t" comes to mind.

[Howlin]

No, I do not. Ralph Abernathy said that Jesse was never in any position to be anywhere close to King's body for the entire time, as Abernathy never left the body.

But Jesse did show up in Detroit that night with a shirt on that had blood on it that he claimed was King's. He was lying because he was cowering on the floor in a downstairs hotel room at the time of the shooting.

"Shakedown savages the first and most important Jesse legend: the claim that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died in Jackson's arms. Statements by the late Reverend Ralph Abernathy (King's top lieutenant and chosen successor), former United Nations ambassador Andrew Young and King aide Hosea Williams indicate Jackson wasn't on the Lorraine Motel balcony on April 4, 1968. Abernathy, in fact, held King until the ambulance came."

[rootntootn]

I say take him back.

Pick him up from whatever banana republic he wanted dropped off in, jet him back to Haiti and drop him off in the middle of the street.

[Mike Darancette]

The departure of Aristede stayed, thus far, a bloodbath. Had we intervened with troops, like Kerry and Jackson suggested we do we would have been forced to kill and would have been killed.