Haiti: Thinking about tomorrow & Avoiding mission creep.

Haiti is broken. It is the most pathetic example of humanity at work on the face of this globe. Statelessness, confusion, anarchy, and emptiness fail to adequately capture Haiti's prospects at the moment. As the 21st century dawns, the world looks to Haiti to understand the rawest form of Hobbes' "state of nature". It is not pretty. The werewolf firmly supports the humanitarian relief being spearheaded by the United States at the moment. However, this relief is not enduring, and eventually it will have to end. Herein lies the problem. What the hell happens next?

The most recent Haitian government, under President Perval, has proven it is more useless than a flaccid penis on a eunuch since last week's devastation. Any semblance of government was totally wiped out and is nowhere to be found. Pathetic, but telling. One of Haiti's former dictator's, Baby Doc Duvalier, living a pedestrian life in exile, has pledged money that isn't his to aid relief efforts, and there are even grumblings about a comeback. Hopefully any chatter about bringing the criminal Aristide back from his exile in South Africa ends before the thought is complete. Here lies a major problem for tomorrow's Haiti. There is no credible source of domestic governance.

The werewolf chalks this up to several things. Firstly, Haiti has such a broken sense of civil society, that without a violent cult-like strongman, a la Papa Doc, there is no civil respect for central authority(This is NOT an endorsement of Papa Doc, just an observation). Secondly, it seemed as if Haiti's most recent governments have outsourced most of their management and governing duties to NGO's and the UN. That is why they vanished when the quake struck. They were virtually invisible to begin with. Herein lies the real problem, Haiti as it recently/currently exists, is a slave to both NGO's and the UN. There is an ugly downside to do-gooderism of those who want to help the world's blighted people. You make them dependent and strip them of their sense of self. As long as these forces are present, Haiti can never make a stab at being a state again (Perhaps it shouldn't, but what then?). The werewolf doesn't want the dedicated soldiers of the 82nd Airborne or the Marine Expeditionary Force, currently trying to stabilize Haiti, to be permanent facets of Haiti's near-term future. What's the solution? It is a really ugly picture.

The Europeans, the French in particular, have the temerity to accuse the American's of trying to occupy Haiti and create a colony. Up yours, jerks! Where are your carriers and massive aid flotillas? That's right, you wouldn't dare sully your uniforms and get your hands dirty unless their was some direct benefit to you. The French still suck. Here's the latest insincere apology over that ridiculous flap. This post will ignore the vile commentary from Venezuela's ignoramus-in-chief, Hugo Chavez.

Back to the point, there are endless op-eds, articles, and musings in all media about what to do with Haiti. The werewolf doesn't know. He's just an unemployed MBA looking for purpose. He fears that America will suffer from "mission creep." If it isn't careful, it may find itself stuck with Haiti as a new, and unwarranted, appendage. The werewolf isn't comfortable with nation-building, and believes that America lacks the will to do it right(despite having the resources), should it elect to try, and therefore nation-building should be avoided. However, making Haiti a permanent ward of the NGO's and the UN smacks of colonialism in the worst hands, and doing nothing may create a barbaric vacuum of anything decent a few hundred miles from our shoreline(back to the status quo?). It's a lose-lose. The question remains, where and when, is it acceptable to cut losses as it relates to Haiti?

The werewolf is curious what the few readers out there actually think.