What's old is new again

So Colin Powell thinks it's time for a "new beginning" in Haiti, does he? He wants "the proud people of Haiti to ... seize this new chance to put your country firmly on the path to democracy," does he? Yes, indeed he does - and what's more, he says that Washington will help!

Wow. Gee. I'm impressed.

Except where was Powell, where was Washington, where was their commitment to democracy when the existing democracy of Haiti under President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was being overrun by the thugs, goons, gangs, and former death squad leaders our now-favored prime minister Gerard Latortue calls "freedom fighters?" Where was the support when Haiti was being starved by aid freezes engineered from the White House? Where was the touching concern for the condition of the people of Haiti when the Bush crew was pressuring Aristide to not raise the minimum wage to a still-pitiful $3.00 a day because that's the way transnational corporations wanted it?

Oh, but all that's past! It's time for new beginnings! Fresh start! Clean slate! No, let's forget all that. So of course, let's also not make any investigation into how and why Aristide left Haiti. I mean, he says he was forced to leave, kidnapped by US forces, in fact - but let's not find out, no. Any such investigation would serve "no purpose," Mr. Unsolid Intelligence said. (Sidebar: When Aristide first raised the claim he was kidnapped, I was ready to chalk it up to hyperbole, as meaning something more along the lines of "once I agreed to leave, they rushed me out before I could make the emotional adjustment." But the more the US insists that we should not find out what actually happened, the more suspicious I become.)

Some stubborn fools, however, have failed to get with the program. Caricom, the Caribbean Community, has refused to recognize the new government in Haiti and what's more, for some reason no rational person can fathom, has demanded a UN inquiry into the circumstances of Aristide's departure. That's put a bit of a hitch into Mr. People Used to Think I Had Integrity's plans, which looked to those nations to take over the "peacekeeping" operations in June.

But no problem. After all, everything is new again. It's morning again in Haiti. Isn't it?

Footnote: Latortue had his hand out for international aid, saying Haiti is virtually bankrupt. True enough, but he slipped up a bit in laying blame. "Those who were here before left the country with absolutely nothing," he said.

Mr. Latortue, you're right that those who are to blame were there before. But you're wrong in your implication that they no longer are. They were there before and they're still there, all around you. No, not those glowering in shanty towns, but those sitting around you, smiling in their suits. They indeed left Haiti with nothing. And they will continue to do so as long as they can. And frankly, I don't think you give a damn.