“There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
Benjamin Franklin
The drums of war are again being orchestrated along the shores of the Potomac!
During the past two weeks, a small but growing cadre in Congress are advocating a military invasion of Haiti … to return Jean-Bertrande Aristide to power. Most of them are stalking horses, testing the political waters for the Administration to determine if the American public will, at least passively, support such a policy. The rest are, at best, misguided.
As with other military adventurism in the post-Vietnam era, Haiti is another “easy” mark, as were Panama, Grenada and Somalia. In each instance, as diplomacy languished our government punctuated its pre-incursion rhetoric with noble justifications for subsequent actions … bringing down that drug trafficking SOB of a dictator, rescuing American college students, and feeding starving people caught in a tragic civil war.
In none of those instances was American national security at risk. It is not at stake in Haiti, either!
Unquestionably, a US sponsored invasion, albeit under the banner of an international task force, would succeed. However, even an easy victory is not likely to come without a price. Despite lofty and humanitarian goals, coupled with America’s overwhelming military technology and might, young men and women will return home in body bags.
And to what end …
After beating up on the ill-equipped and poorly trained Haitian army, there will be an attempt to glorify the success of US foreign policy and hype America’s military prowess. President Aristide will be reinstalled as the country’s leader and millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars will inevitably be funneled to “rebuild” the island nation.
Overlooked amid the subsequent Rose Garden ceremonies and local parades honoring our returning heroes, will be the abject failure of the Administration and the international community to achieve its ends through reason and negotiation. Much the same can be said of Bosnia, Rwanda and some three dozen other “hot spots” around the globe … most of which involve internal conflicts.
Reliance on force as the ultimate tool in America’s foreign policy portfolio can not sit well with other nations. In particular, it may provide fodder to extremists like Russian ultra-nationalist Zhirinovsky, who recently claimed the US and NATO are planning an invasion of Russia.
Some of Congress’ Haitian hawks stress the need for America to show leadership, a another tacit admission its diplomacy has failed. But, leadership is not gained by having the biggest club. Rather it is earned by achieving desirable ends peacefully and by example.
Granted, situations occur in which force is justified, even demanded, in the absence of any clear and present danger to the country. Yet, as bad as conditions in Haiti may be, they pale in comparison to the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Bosnia or the tribal genocide now underway in Rwanda.
Meantime, others express concern for the safety of the hundreds of refugees fleeing Haiti in open boats. If fear of persecution was the overriding force inducing the exodus, why do the refugees invariably head for the U.S. mainland.
Are none of Haiti’s neighbors, including the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, willing to set up the necessary facilities to provide refugee centers for those people? A quick glance at a map suggests Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas and even Puerto Rico are shorter, safer trips. For that matter, no other nation has even volunteered to permit refugee interrogation on their soil.
Finally, there is Mr. Aristide, himself … a man who had little use for democratic institutions until his ouster. Even his staunchest Congressional defenders concede his legacy has occasionally been grounded in virulent anti-American rhetoric.
Haiti is one of the world’s poorest nations, racked by centuries of tribal and class frictions. Even if Aristide were to reemerge as the Nelson Mandela of the Caribbean, there is no guarantee he can oversee an era of Haitian peace without forcibly imposing it upon his people.
Tragically, there is no good or easy answer to the nightmare in which Haiti finds itself. Tightening the economic noose, perhaps finally persuading the Dominican Republic to seal its border with Haiti, may help. Perhaps newly-appointed special ambassador William Gray can broker a Camp David style meeting between General Cedras, President Aristide and President Clinton which might break the logjam.
While such continuing diplomatic efforts might be difficult and produce little in the way of positive nightly sound-bites, they are infinitely more preferable to the insanity of an invasion of Haiti.
