THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 20, 1994 TAG: 9409200014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Few can now doubt the relationship between diplomacy and military power. Just when negotiations seemed stalled between the Haitian military and the delegation led by President Carter, the news arrived that the first elements of the invasion force were on their way. The agreement reached Sunday night followed rapidly.
All can be grateful that American forces did not, in the end, have to shoot their way into Haiti. Casualties would have been inevitable in what polls show most Americans believed to be a dubious enterprise. Though he appears to have gone to the brink and won, it is to be fervently hoped one lesson President Clinton does not draw from this experience is that it can be repeated in other world trouble spots.
As has been noted all along, however, the actual invasion of Haiti would have been the easy part. Now comes the task of reconstructing the country. As Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn pointed out at yesterday's press conference, restoring a democratically elected leader is not the same as restoring democracy. It will be an uphill struggle to implant democratic ideals there.
Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and his cohorts say they will leave power by Oct. 15, if the Haitian parliament passes an amnesty to absolve them of their past crimes. That means U.S. troops will have to spend a month in uneasy co-existence with the men President Clinton has labeled ``thugs.'' Deposed President Jean Bertrande Aristide is said to be upset about the amnesty and that there are no guarantees he will return to power.
Hindsight is the only true judge of whether a foreign military intervention was worthwhile or ill-advised. As retired Gen. Colin Powell noted yesterday, hard times for the U.S. military in Haiti still lie ahead. Casualties can still happen if civil disorder breaks out and the agreement unravels. The ghost of nation-building, Somalia-style, still rattles its chains.
Back in the 1980s it was fashionable in many circles to imply that military force and diplomacy had little or nothing to do with one another. The Haitian situation has proven that not to be the case. Gen. Powell, one of the architects of Operation Desert Storm, almost certainly played a key role in letting the Haitian junta know what it was in for if it continued to resist making a deal.
All Americans, however, - particularly those here in Hampton Roads with relatives in the Caribbean - have cause to be grateful for the professionalism shown by their armed forces in getting the job done. ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
RAOUL CEDRAS
by CNB