
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 21, 1994                   TAG: 9409230033
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

GETTING OUT

ONE OF THE best ex-presidents ever, Jimmy Carter, apparently played good cop to the bad cops of retired Gen. Colin Powell and Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., in negotiating an agreement with Haitian dictators that allowed U.S. troops to land on that troubled island without bloodshed this week.

But the 11th-hour negotiators' reprieve does not excuse the administration's failure to obtain congressional authorization to invade. Nor does it promise a happy ending to a story that is far from over.

Yes, it's nice, as Powell put it, that young American and Haitian soldiers aren't shooting each other. But the problem never was getting into Haiti. The Haitian military was never a match for the U.S. invasion force. The problem was, and still is, getting out.

Indeed, without disposing of Haiti's dictators and brutal military, the task of ending repression, reducing violence and restoring a democratically elected government may be even more complicated and difficult.

President Clinton should not overestimate America's ability to stitch together a broken-down society like Haiti. The last time Marines landed, they stayed 19 years. This time, every effort needs to be made to:

(1) Keep U.S. goals well-defined and strictly limited. (2) Push Gen. Raoul Cedras and his cronies (whom President Clinton rightly accused of massive human-rights violations last week, but who are now some sort of partners of the U.S. occupation) out of Haiti. (3) Get the American occupation forces out, too, and sooner rather than later.

by CNB