THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407070011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Among foreign-policy problems that the White House seems unable to resolve is that involving Haiti. So far, it has relied principally upon gradually tightened embargo and the threat of U.S. military action. The most apparent effect of embargo has been further impoverishment of Haiti's poor, and military action is not acceptable to the American people. There is a better way.
Let the Haitians themselves remove the military dictators. Recruit a force of 10,000-12,000 Haitians of military age; train them at a U.S. military facility, such as the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune, N.C.; provide them with whatever arms are necessary; and, in due course, land them at an appropriate place on Haiti's coastline, backed by whatever air and naval power and logistical support may be required to assure success.
Considering the poorly trained and equipped troops available to Haiti's military dictators, 90 days of intensive training should be sufficient for an invading force's rank and file, with perhaps an additional 60 days to develop adequately trained company grade officers. Foreign military advisers, preferably French, could provide necessary guidance for Haitian field-grade officers and the task force's Haitian commander.
The odds are that faced with such a force, Haiti's military dictators would fold before a shot is fired, and the task force could then be used to restore order and protect Haiti's population from the thugs who now terrorize it.
In the meantime, remove the embargo on all things lacking military significance.
JOHN C. BRADLEY
Kitty Hawk, N.C., June 27, 1994
Hasn't anyone in the Clinton administration read any history? No matter what we do, Haiti is going to eventually be Haiti. Which means it will be no different 50 years from now then it is today. Any country that has not in part come into the 20th century by now is not going to. What little modernization has been accomplished was done by a foreign country.
Unless Haiti is a threat to our national security, let it alone. Forget the blockade, forget returning Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power unless we are going to permanently occupy Haiti. That's all we need is to take on another welfare society.
Is the flood of refugees to our shores a consideration? I say yes, if we are going to use our present policy. We pick them up from rickety boats, house them, feed them better than they can feed themselves, give them first-class health care on one of our finest hospital ships, take personnel from the Naval Hospital which is already short of doctors, nurses, corpsmen, et al. The hospital cannot now care for all of its own active and retired personnel.
This business of political asylum is hogwash. If that's the case, why don't the refugees try Cuba, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands or any other Caribbean country? They do not want to go there because they would not get first-class health care, housing and a comfortable welfare program.
The president could put out the word that all boat people and others would be promptly returned to Haiti. Those with a proven case for political asylum should apply at the U.S. Embassy or whatever we have there now. All those people or countries that are unhappy with this policy - let them take the Haitians they want and support them. I think this should be a reasonable policy for all concerned.
JAMES E. LAUGHLIN
Virginia Beach, June 23, 1994 by CNB